crime
Perpetrator shot after taking hostages in Zug, Switzerland
According to the police, all hostages were freed and were doing well. photo
© Laurent Gillieron/KEYSTONE/dpa
On a routine train journey in the evening rush hour in Switzerland, an armed man takes passengers and train drivers hostage. After hours of negotiations, the police intervene.
Armed with a knife and an ax, a man on a regional train in the Switzerland threatened 14 passengers and the train driver and held them hostage for almost four hours. After a police operation around 10:15 p.m., people were able to leave the train unharmed, but the perpetrator was shot, as Attorney General Eric Kaltenrieder said at a press conference that night. The perpetrator was a 32-year-old asylum seeker of Iranian nationality. The motive for his crime is still unclear.
Those affected had alerted the police from the train on the line between Baulmes and Yverdon-les-Bains in French-speaking western Switzerland. More than 60 officers surrounded the train, which had come to a stop with the doors locked at the Essert-sous-Champvent stop, the police said. An interpreter was brought in to negotiate with the hostage taker – sometimes via WhatsApp. The police did not say what the man wanted.
The emergency services finally took advantage of an opportunity when the perpetrator briefly moved away from the hostages to intervene. Explosives were used to distract him. The man then charged at a police officer with the ax, who then fired. The attacker died on the spot.