Switzerland Knife Attack Leaves Six Injured

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) A man injured half a dozen people on Wednesday, two of them seriously, before being arrested in Zofingen, northern Switzerland.

The suspect“is believed to be of foreign origin and around 40 years old”, canton Aargau Police said, adding that they otherwise knew little about the man, who is in hospital and under surveillance.

However, they believe that he acted alone and that there is no longer any danger to the public. For the moment, they are not saying what his motivations may have been.

He“used sharp-edged blades” with which he injured six people,“two of them seriously”, according to the police statement late on Wednesday. All those injured remained in hospital on Wednesday evening.

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At around 4pm local time, the man attacked a first passer-by at the railway station in Zofingen. He then walked on and attacked several others, apparently at random, before retreating into a house, police said. After some two hours, and after special forces were able to make contact with him, the man was arrested.

The assailant was also injured and taken to hospital, said cantonal police spokesman, Bernhard Graser, who told the daily newspaper Zofinger Tagblatt that the injuries were self-inflicted.

Two teachers at the cantonal school in Zofingen were among the injured, Patrick Strössler, the school's headmaster, confirmed to the 20minuten news portal. He said they had been attacked outside school grounds and gave no indication of their state of health.

The regional daily Aargauer Zeitung reported the statement of a reader whose pregnant wife was attacked by the unknown man“with a metal object”. The woman“was injured in the face and suffered some swelling, but is in good health given the circumstances”, her husband told the newspaper.

She was taken to the cantonal hospital in Aarau, around 20km from Zofingen. Zofingen is home to some 12,000 inhabitants and is about 60km south of Basel and the same distance west of Zurich.

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The police have launched an appeal for witnesses and asked the public to send in any videos and photos that could help their investigations.

Images published by the Aargauer Zeitung showed a large-scale deployment of police and emergency services on Wednesday. Members of the police force, wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests, can be seen shouldering equipment in a black 4X4, with handguns in their belts. Other police officers, armed with assault rifles, can be seen exiting a vehicle. Several ambulances and a helicopter also attended the scene.

To enable the helicopter to land, the local football club SC Zofingen was forced to cancel its training sessions to clear the pitch, according to the newspaper.

Adapted from French by DeepL/kp,dos

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This content was published on May 15, 2024 Switzerland plans to introduce a flight passenger database to collect and process personal data in a bid to combat terrorism and serious crime.

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