Switzerland knife attack leaves six injured

Aargau police said they knew little about the attacker, who is now in hospital and under surveillance Keystone / Michael Buholzer

A man injured half a dozen people on Wednesday, two of them seriously, before being arrested in Zofingen, northern Switzerland.

The suspect was identified by canton Aargau police on Thursday as a 43-year-old Spaniard. They said he had displayed signs of erratic behaviour. He is currently in hospital and under surveillance. 

Police believe the man acted alone and that there is no longer any danger to the public. There is no indication of any terrorist motivation, they added on Thursday afternoon.

The man “used sharp-edged blades” and injured six people, “two of them seriously”, according to the police. All the victims remained in hospital on Wednesday evening; by Thursday, the two serious cases were reported as being not life-threatening.

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At around 4pm local time on Wednesday, the man attacked a first passer-by at the railway station in Zofingen. He then walked on and attacked several others, apparently at random, before retreating into a house, police said. After some two hours, and after special forces were able to make contact with him, the man was arrested.  

The assailant was also injured and taken to hospital, said cantonal police spokesman, Bernhard Graser, who told the daily newspaper Zofinger Tagblatt that the injuries were self-inflicted.  

Two teachers at the cantonal school in Zofingen were among the injured, Patrick Strössler, the school’s headmaster, confirmed to the 20minuten.ch news portal. He said they had been attacked outside school grounds and gave no indication of their state of health.

The regional daily Aargauer Zeitung reported the statement of a reader whose pregnant wife was attacked by the unknown man “with a metal object”. The woman “was injured in the face and suffered some swelling, but is in good health given the circumstances”, her husband told the newspaper.  

She was taken to the cantonal hospital in Aarau, around 20km from Zofingen. Zofingen is home to some 12,000 inhabitants and is about 60km south of Basel and the same distance west of Zurich. 

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The police have launched an appeal for witnesses and asked the public to send in any videos and photos that could help their investigations.

Images published by the Aargauer Zeitung showed a large-scale deployment of police and emergency services on Wednesday. Members of the police force, wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests, can be seen shouldering equipment in a black 4X4, with handguns in their belts. Other police officers, armed with assault rifles, can be seen exiting a vehicle. Several ambulances and a helicopter also attended the scene.  

To enable the helicopter to land, the local football club SC Zofingen was forced to cancel its training sessions to clear the pitch, according to the newspaper. 

Adapted from French by DeepL/kp,dos

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