AFP, GENEVA: Swiss police said Sunday there was so far no indication that an attacker’s knife rampage on a train, which injured six passengers, was an act of terror. “The question of motive remains,” police from Switzerland’s eastern Saint Gallen region said in a statement, stressing: “To date there is no indication this was a terrorist or politically motivated act.”
Police spokesman Bruno Metzger told AFP “terrorism is not our main theory” for Saturday afternoon’s attack and that “other motives” figured far higher on the list, although he would not say what they were.
A 27-year-old Swiss national used flammable liquid to start a fire on a moving train in eastern Switzerland before stabbing passengers, according to police.
The attack took place at around 2:20 pm (1220 GMT) near Salez station on a train running between Buchs and Sennwald near Switzerland’s eastern border with Liechtenstein and Austria. Police said the attack had been caught on video, allowing them to
determine that the man had acted alone.
The victims included two men aged 17 and 50, three women aged 17, 34 and 43 and a six-year-old girl. Dozens of people were on the train at the time of the attack, police said.
Metzger said the attacker, who is not of immigrant origin and does not have a criminal record, and one woman remained in critical condition.
Four other passengers were also injured, including a woman and the child who were in serious condition, police said.
A person who had been on the platform at Salez station was also hurt after rushing in to pull out the attacker—who was on fire—out of the train, police said.
“His intervention probably prevented worst,” police spokesman Hanspeter Kruesi told the Blick daily, suggesting that more passengers might have been injured.
Metzger said police for the time being would not provide more details on the identities or nationalities of the victims.
Late Saturday, police had searched the home of the suspected attacker, who lives in a canton neighbouring Saint Gallen.