The 32-year-old man suspected of killing a 75-year-old woman in Basel on Thursday has been arrested by the police.
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The arrest took place at around 2.30pm following a witness statement, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said. A public alert had been issued on Friday and a photo of the suspect published on the Public Prosecutor’s website.
The 32-year-old man was being treated in a secure unit at the Basel University Psychiatric Clinic and is considered dangerous. He had already killed two women in 2014.
The suspect escaped from the psychiatric clinic before carrying out his act, the Basel police said on Friday.
The lifeless body of a 75-year-old woman was discovered on Thursday in the stairwell of a building in Basel. The police cordoned off the area throughout the afternoon. A neighbour reported a man behaving suspiciously. A special judicial police commission has been set up to investigate.
In 2014, the suspect had already killed two women and seriously injured another man in the same area, said Martin Schütz, spokesman for the Basel-City Public Prosecutor’s Office. He confirmed a report published by the Basler Zeitung newspaper.
In September 2015, the Basel-City Criminal Court ordered inpatient psychiatric treatment. The man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and personality disorders.
>>>This article has been updated in response to the arrest of the suspect.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
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