German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France President Emmanuel Macron will take part in a phone call with other European leaders to discuss a European crackdown against Islamist extremism on Tuesday, according to two participants in a call with her CDU party leadership on Monday.
Austria and France have been hit by deadly attacks in recent weeks, which their leaders have described as "terrorist" acts.
Participants in the call will include Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, and European Council President Charles Michel.
Attacks in France and Austria have catapulted terrorism back to the top of the EU’s political agenda.
Austria arrested 30 people on Monday as it made 60 dawn raids on various premises as part of a probe into inpiduals and organizations suspected to be linked to Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Graz.
"The investigation started a year ago and isn’t linked to the Islamist terrorist attack that killed four people last week," prosecutors said in a statement.
France, too, has suffered multiple attacks in the weeks leading up to the Vienna incident, sparking a renewed sense of worry about ISIS activity.
In the United Kingdom, the threat level has been raised to ‘severe’ following the surge in attacks on the Continent.
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