Swiss police have laid siege to an apartment in the south-eastern town of Chur, where a 22 year-old gunman has holed himself up after shooting and wounding two policemen. One of the men is in critical condition.

Swiss police have laid siege to an apartment in the south-eastern town of Chur, where a 22 year-old gunman has holed himself up after shooting and wounding two policemen. One of the men is in critical condition.

Police were deployed at 8.30 local time on Sunday morning, after reports that the gunman had opened fire on a restaurant opposite the apartment, breaking glass windows in the conservatory. The area was sealed off and a road closed to traffic.

At 11.10, police attempted to storm the apartment, but retreated after the gunman opened fire and seriously injured a policeman. The officer was hit in the chest, just above his bullet-proof vest. Another shot fired at the injured man hit his steel helmet, before he was rescued by colleagues and taken into intensive care in hospital. The gunman shot and killed a police dog during the operation.

After this, unsuccessful attempts were made to contact the gunman through a psychologist. Instead, he continued firing sporadic shots, and burst out of the apartment in the early afternoon to fire at policemen in the staircase. Another policeman was hit in the arm.

The man is thought to be a 22 year-old man from St Gallen who moved to Chur only two months ago.

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