Updated 19:17 GMT

On Thursday, two strangers stormed a Catholic Church in Vienna Austria and attacked and took hostage several monks, newspaper Krone reports.

The men tied up and robbed the monks in a brutal attack. As a result at least five victims are seriously injured.

Afterwards, the suspects fled the scene. The victims were discovered around 4:15 pm and had already been tied up for several hours.

The two perpetrators attacked the church around 1:30 pm. According to Russia Today:

“Police have confirmed that five people, all of them monks, were injured in the attack. One monk suffered serious injuries. A 68-year-old monk was at the premises of the church when the robbers broke in. They threatened the man with a firearm and forced him to lie on the ground.

“The perpetrators then hit him and trampled upon him, inflicting serious head injuries, the Austrian Kronen Zeitung reports. Four more monks, who arrived at the church later, were also attacked and injured, police spokesman Harald Soeroes told Kronen Zeitung.

“The suspects are still on the run, their identities unknown. Soeroes described one of the suspects as a 5.9-feet tall man with dark hair. “Both men speak German and have a foreign accent,” the police spokesman said.”

A Huge police operation started immediately and a Cobra helicopter is circling the area. The area between Langenzersdorferstraße, Anton-Böck-Straße and Krottenhofgasse was cordoned off in a large scale operation. “Please avoid the restricted area and let our colleagues work locally,” the police warned via Twitter.

Currently, according to the investigators there is no suspicion of terrorism, but the exact motive is still unknown. However, according to reports, one of the perpetrators has been behaving suspiciously for days around the church.

Police special forces of WEGA and tactical unit Cobra have come into action.

“According to the currently available information, all the people injured as a result of the attack by unknown persons are staff of the Catholic church. The preliminary information indicates that it was a robbery. We are checking whether there are Russian citizens among those injured,” the embassy’s spokesman Bulat Haydarov told Sputnik.