3 wounded in blade attack at Swiss railway station
The suspect – a 31-year-old Swiss-Turkish man – has been arrested. The attack is being treated as a terrorist act , a security official said
A knife attack by a man reportedly shouting “Allahu akbar” that wounded three people at a Swiss railway station on Thursday was a “terrorist act”, a regional security official said.
“I am exceptionally calling this a terrorist attack,” Mario Fehr, in charge of security in the Swiss canton of Zurich, told reporters, adding that it was clear that the motive for this “evil act of terror” must be sought “in the realm of radicalisation and extremism”.
Witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion when the man, who police said was a 31-year-old Swiss-Turkish dual national, suddenly began stabbing people at the main railway station in Winterthur – Switzerland’s sixth largest city – during the morning rush hour.
“Shortly after 8.30am, a man injured three people with a bladed weapon” at the station, police said in a statement.
They said the suspect had been arrested.
Three Swiss men, ages 28, 43 and 52, were wounded in the attack. The first two were discharged or were about to be released from hospitals by midafternoon, Weyermann said. The oldest was still hospitalised after an operation on a thigh injury.