GENEVA. Police in Switzerland have fatally shot a man armed with an axe and a knife who had taken 15 passengers hostage on a train Thursday night.
The hostage-taker, identified as a 32-year-old asylum seeker from Iran, boarded a local train near Yverdon, compelling the driver to halt the train and join passengers in the carriage.
Authorities swiftly responded to the situation after passengers alerted them, with more than 60 officers converging on the scene. Despite attempts to communicate with the hostage-taker in English and Farsi, the standoff persisted for several hours.
In a late-night operation, police stormed the train using stun grenades when they observed the hostage-taker moving away from passengers. As the man attacked police, officers were compelled to use firearms to protect the hostages and themselves, resulting in the fatal shooting of the perpetrator.
The motive for the hostage-taking remains unclear, though witnesses noted the perpetrator appeared “very stressed.” Hostages and their families are receiving support from the Swiss health service’s psychological department.
The assailant, originally from Iran, had been residing in an asylum seeker center in Neuchatel. While hostage situations are rare in Switzerland, past incidents have occurred at banks and businesses, such as a hostage-taking incident at a watch-making firm in January 2022.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
