The knifeman was detained after attacking passersby apparently at random
Swiss authorities have detained a man who stabbed multiple individuals in the town of Zofingen on Wednesday. The targets were apparently chosen randomly, and included a pregnant woman, local media reported.
The suspect stabbed his first victim at the town’s train station, before making his way toward the neighboring municipality of Strengelbach, attacking more people along the way, police said in a statement.
A witness told the Argovia Today news site that the first victim was a pregnant woman.
Police said that the man then entered a building and refused to leave for two hours. Police negotiators eventually convinced him to surrender, and he was taken into custody.
It is unclear how many people were wounded. The police statement said that “several” ambulances were deployed to the scene, and that multiple people were hospitalized with stab wounds. The perpetrator was also injured.
No personal information was given about the accused attacker or his possible motives.
Violent crime is relatively rare in Switzerland, and the country has a homicide rate twelve times lower than that of the US, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. However, instances of violent crime have steadily over the last decade, and reached a record high last year.
Wednesday’s stabbings came just over two months after police arrested a 15-year-old boy over the stabbing of an elderly Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich. The juvenile suspect, who was not named, described himself as a “soldier” of the Islamic State terrorist group, and posted a video online before the attack calling for a “battle against the Jews,” a police spokesman said.