VIENNA (APP) – Around 20,000 people took to the streets of Vienna on Monday to demonstrate against ill-treatment of migrants, police said, after the bodies of 71 refugees were found in an abandoned truck last week.
Demonstrators of all ages rallied at the city’s Westbahnhof train station before heading down a major shopping thoroughfare.
A large part of the inner city had been cordoned off for the march. Among those marching were parents carrying children on their shoulders, while police officers watched from the sidelines with their helmets under their arms.
The demonstrators, many dressed in white, congregated in front of parliament, where they lit a sea of candles.
Authorities praised the calm nature of the demonstration after it had finished at 1930 GMT.
“There was not a single incident,” police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer said. The march took place as a service was held for the dead at St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
