Austrian police said they have arrested 15 people on suspicion of a wave of hate crime attacks against LGBTQ people in raids across the country.
The 12 men and three women are suspected of assaulting and robbing LGBTQ people "under the guise of vigilante justice", claiming the group's actions were aimed at "combating paedophiles", police said.
The suspects are accused of creating fake accounts on dating platforms to lure LGBTQ people to sometimes remote locations, where they were attacked, robbed and humiliated.
Authorities said the perpetrators - who were sometimes masked - were out to humiliate the victims by filming the assaults and later sharing the clips online.
More than 400 police officers and criminal investigators carried out the raids at 23 locations in seven Austrian provinces, police said.
The arrests come as violence and harassment against LGBTQ people in Europe have reached a new high in recent years, according to a survey published in 2024 by the European Union's rights agency.
The case which triggered the Austrian investigation happened in July near the city of Graz, where a victim was lured into a nearby forest before violently robbed, police spokesperson Sabri Yorgun said.
Authorities said the alleged perpetrators are between 14 and 26 years old and include 11 Austrians, one German, one Croatian and one Romanian citizen, as well as one suspect who was arrested in neighbouring Slovakia.
At least 17 criminal offences have so far been established in connection with the investigation, including attempted murder.
But police cautioned that the number of cases is probably much higher.
Weapons and Nazi memorabilia were also found during the raids.
A total of 5,668 hate crimes were recorded in 2023 in Austria, with violence against sexual minorities sharply up on the previous year.
In its latest report, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found that the discrimination against LGBTQ people across Europe "remains high", with "more violence, harassment and bullying" than before.
Since 2019, same-sex couples in Austria have been allowed to marry and adopt children.
