Three wounded in Swiss train station stabbing labelled ‘act of terror’

A man stabbed and wounded three people in what authorities have described as an “act of terror” at a train station in the Swiss city of Winterthur.

The attack took place shortly before 8:30am (06:00 GMT) on Thursday. The suspect – who was arrested five minutes after emergency services were alerted – is a 31-year-old Swiss-Turkish dual national who lives in Winterthur, regional police chief Marius Weyermann said.

He had come to the authorities’ attention in 2015 for distributing propaganda of the ISIL (ISIS) group, Weyermann added. In recent days, he was taken to a psychiatric facility after calling the police emergency number and making “confused comments”, but he left on Wednesday after a doctor determined that he wasn’t dangerous.

Three Swiss men, ages 28, 43 and 52, were wounded in Thursday’s attack.

The first two were discharged or were about to be released from hospitals by mid-afternoon, Weyermann said. The oldest was still hospitalised after an operation on a thigh injury.

Weyermann said investigators believe the man acted alone.

Mario Fehr, the Zurich region’s top security official, described the attack as “an evil act of terror”.

He said the suspect was born in Switzerland and gained Swiss citizenship in 2009 and apparently had spent much of the last two years in Turkiye.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin said he was “shocked by the terrorist attack … This deeply affects me”.

“I wish the three injured a swift and full recovery. And I thank the emergency services for their work.”

Reacting to the attack, Switzerland’s Islamic Central Council (IZR) said in a statement that it “strongly condemns this cowardly and barbaric act”.

ISIL, it added, “is not an Islamic movement, but a perverse terrorist sect whose sole aim is to sow discord, murder innocent people and damage the reputation of Muslims worldwide”.

Winterthur has about 123,000 residents and is located in northeastern Switzerland, near the country’s biggest city, Zurich.