Police Give Details Of Dramatic Hostage-Taking Incident

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) As initially reported, the man was an Iranian asylum seeker, aged 32. Contrary to what had been first announced, his case had been assigned to the canton of Geneva and not to Neuchâtel, the Vaud cantonal police said late on Friday afternoon.

The number of hostages was meanwhile 13, not 15, the police added. It also clarified the nature of the weapons carried by the man, who spoke Farsi and English during the incident: not only had he an axe and a knife, but also a hammer.

+ Read more about the incident as it was reported on Friday

According to initial investigations, his motivation was related to“his status as an asylum seeker and his insistence on having contact with a member of staff at an asylum centre”. The police previously had to intervene on several occasions because of his behaviour, it said.

Four-hour ordeal

The police also gave new details of their storming of the train at 10, after almost four hours of“a long phase of negotiations”. The incident had begun at around 6.30pm and the train was stopped at the Essert-sous-Champvent station, with the doors closed. Around 60 police officers took up positions around the it.

“One of the members of the intervention group first used his taser to immobilise the man who was rushing towards them. However, the armed man continued towards them and the hostages. It was then that a second member of the unit used his weapon to neutralise him,” police said.

The man was fatally wounded and died on the spot, despite the presence of a doctor. The passengers were cared for on the spot by a medical unit before being transported by bus to a centre in Yverdon, where they were reunited with their families. A psychological unit was immediately set up.

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