Skip to main content

Man stabs 3 people at Swiss train station in what authorities call an ‘act of terror’

GENEVA (AP) — A man stabbed and wounded three people in what authorities described as an “act of terror” at the train station in the Swiss city of Winterthur on Thursday before being arrested.

The attack took place shortly before 8:30 a.m. 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 authorities’ attention in 2015 for distributing propaganda of the Islamic State 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 hospitalized 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 Turkey.

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

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
Read Next Story