Swiss police: Terror motive for train attack ‘very far-fetched’
Authorities investigate arson, stabbings on carriage in which 6 were injured, including young child; 27-year-old Swiss assailant in custody
Swiss police on Saturday did not rule out a terror motive for an arson and knife attack on a train in which at least six were wounded, including a six-year-old, but said it was not likely.
“A terrorism background still seems very, very far-fetched,” a police spokesman said Saturday hours after the attack, according to Reuters, adding it may have been a “crime of passion.”
Police told AFP the suspected attacker, who used flammable liquid to start the fire, was a 27-year-old Swiss national, and not of immigrant background.
The suspected attacker carried out the attack on a train travelling in Switzerland’s far east, along its border with Liechtenstein, and was also injured, regional police in St Gallen said in a statement.
The attack began as the train was approaching Salez station, between the towns of Buchs and Sennwald, when the suspect set fire to a carriage with dozens of people aboard before starting a stabbing spree.
Police said the suspect was “armed with at least one knife.”
Police said two 17-year-olds, a boy and a girl, a 50-year-old man, and two women, 34 and 43 were hurt in the attack. Their wounds included stabbing injuries and burns.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said no Israelis were injured in the Saturday afternoon attack.
A massive contingent of rescue workers rushed to the scene, including police, firefighters, ambulances and three rescue helicopters.
The Salez station remains closed, and police said replacement buses had been set up.
Saint Gallen prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the attack.
Police said the train had suffered damages upwards of 100,000 Swiss francs ($103,000, 92,000 euros).
The attack was the latest in a string of brutal assaults in Europe in recent months that have left the continent on edge.
Swiss neighbor Germany has seen a series of attacks in recent weeks. In July, there were two attacks by migrants in the southern state of Bavaria — an axe rampage on a train and a suicide bombing.
In Munich, an 18-year-old German-Iranian also went on a gun rampage in a shopping mall, leaving nine people dead.
On July 14, a Tunisian man rammed a truck into crowds of revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 85 people.
Earlier this year, suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station on March 22 in another coordinated jihadist attack claimed by IS near the European Union headquarters, killing 32 people.
In November 2015, a coordinated jihadist attack claimed by IS in Paris left 130 people dead.
In January 2015, a jihadist assault on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris left 12 dead while another four were killed an attack on a kosher supermarket in the city.