A knife attack by a man reportedly shouting “Allahu akbar” that wounded three people at a Swiss train 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 from the scene that the motive for this act must be sought in the realm of radicalisation and extremism.”
Three people were injured in the incident which happened at a train station in Winterthur on Thursday morning, Swiss police said.
Witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion when the man, who police said was a 31-year-old Swiss national, suddenly began stabbing people at the station during the morning rush hour.
“Shortly after 8:30 am, a man injured three people with a bladed weapon” at the station, police for Zurich canton said in a statement.
They said the suspected perpetrator had been arrested and that his “motive is under investigation.”
Images broadcast by several Swiss media outlets and on social media showed a man with long dark hair and a full beard running in front of the station shouting “Allahu akbar!” (God is the greatest), while raising his right hand.
Several witnesses quoted by Swiss media said he was armed with a knife.
A 65-year-old taxi driver named Turhan Muslu told the Blick newspaper that he witnessed the attack.
“It all happened so fast. If those security guards hadn’t (arrived) so quickly, I don’t know what would have happened,” he said.
Rare attack
The three people who were injured in the attack were aged 28, 43 and 52 and were all Swiss citizens, police said, adding that all three had been taken to hospital.
Police spokesman Roger Bonetti told the SRF public broadcaster that one of the three had been seriously wounded.
Attacks targeting random passers-by are rare in Switzerland and people in the city, located 25 kilometres northeast of Zurich, voiced shock at what had unfolded.
“This is not OK. We want peace,” Basharat Iqbal, a taxi driver who arrived at the station after the attack, told the AFP news agency.
The Zurich cantonal police force said it was cooperating with Winterthur municipal police, the Swiss Federal Railways’ transport police and hospital, ambulance and rescue services in the operation.
At the scene, several police cordons were deployed at various locations inside and outside the station, according to images published by local media.
The attack did not cause any disruption to train traffic, Swiss Federal Railways told AFP.
Additional sources • AFP
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