Three injured in ‘terrorist attack’ at Swiss train station

Morning commuters at a busy Swiss train station were thrown into chaos after a knife attack that left three people wounded, in what a regional security official described as a “terrorist act.”

“I am exceptionally calling this a terrorist attack,” Mario Fehr, who oversees security in the Swiss canton of Zurich, told reporters, saying it was “clear from the scene that the motive for this act must be sought in the realm of radicalisation and extremism.”

Witnesses recounted fear and confusion as the suspect, identified by police as a 31-year-old Swiss national, suddenly began stabbing people during the morning rush at the main train station in Winterthur, Switzerland’s sixth largest city.

“Shortly after 8.30am (7.30am Irish time) a man injured three people with a bladed weapon” at the station, Zurich canton police said in a statement.

Video carried by several Swiss media outlets and shared on social media appeared to show a man with long dark hair and a full beard running outside the station while shouting “Allahu akbar!” (God is the greatest) and raising his right hand.

The victims were aged 28, 43 and 52, and all were Swiss citizens, police said, adding that each was taken to hospital.

Police spokesman Roger Bonetti told public broadcaster SRF that one of the three suffered serious injuries.

A 65-year-old taxi driver, Turhan Muslu, told the Blick newspaper he saw the attack unfold.

“I saw him rush off the ramp and try to stab a man,” he told the daily, saying the intended victim had “fought back fiercely” before station guards intervened and overpowered the attacker.

“It all happened so fast. If those security guards hadn’t (arrived) so quickly, I don’t know what would have happened.”

In footage published online and filmed from a distance on a mobile phone, the man, dressed in a black T-shirt and shorts, can be seen running past a group of young children who appeared to be on a school trip, without stopping.

“I heard a man scream ‘Allahu akbar’ five or six times, in a very agitated manner,” a young witness told Blick, which did not name him.

He said the children and other bystanders had “run across the road” in panic as the scene erupted around them.

“Thinking back on it, I still have goosebumps,” he said.

Switzerland rarely sees attacks on random passers-by, and residents in Winterthur, a city about 25kms northeast of Zurich, reacted with disbelief to the violence.

“This is not OK. We want peace,” Basharat Iqbal, a taxi driver who arrived at the station after the attack, told AFP.

“I was shocked.”

Zurich cantonal police said they were working alongside Winterthur municipal police, the Swiss Federal Railways’ transport police, as well as hospital, ambulance and rescue teams.

Images published by local media showed multiple police cordons set up at several points inside and outside the station.

The attack did not disrupt train services, Swiss Federal Railways said.