A 26-year-old assailant has attacked a police officer outside the Austrian parliament in Vienna. The incident comes days after a 26-year-old man attacked a soldier outside the Iranian ambassador’s home in the city.

Tuesday’s attack took place shortly after 8am local time in front of the building on Heldenplatz. The attacker approached the police officer, who was sitting in a patrol car, and engaged him in conversation before suddenly lunging at him, trying to drag him from the vehicle, police said in a statement.

The officer fought back and managed to deploy pepper spray, disabling the attacker and allowing the officer to make an arrest. Austrian anti-terrorism police are investigating the incident. Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung is reporting that the attacker is a 26 year old from Afghanistan.

READ MORE: Knife-wielding attacker shot outside Iranian envoy's residence in Vienna

The incident comes just days after an attack outside the Iranian ambassador’s residence in Vienna which saw a 26-year-old man shot dead after stabbing a soldier several times.

Austria’s interior ministry said on Tuesday that the man, who was an Austrian of Egyptian origin, sympathized with radical Islamist ideology but it’s too early to ascertain his motives.

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