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.
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The suspected attacker was taken to hospital after the incident near Salez in St Gallen Canton, Swiss media has said.
Last year, a man carried out an attack on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris with guns and knives but was subdued by two American men.
Police Spokesman Bruno Metzger said that all possible motives were being considered for Saturday’s attack and that terrorism was not the main theory. The train station is deserted at Salez – Sennwald following an attack aboard a train when a man attacked other passengers aboard the train at Salez, Switzerland, on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016.
The woman who died yesterday morning in the attack had received a large portion of the flammable liquid over her, leading to speculation she might have been the main target of the attack.
Authorities said they believe the man was acting alone, but stressed the investigation is still ongoing.
The 34-year-old woman and the 27-year-old suspect died from their injuries yesterday, St Gallen cantonal police said. “His intervention probably prevented worse”, police spokesman Hanspeter Kruesi told the Blick daily.
Among those hurt was a 17-year-old boy, a 50-year-old man, three women aged 17, 34 and 43, and a 6-year-old child. “There is now none that can be found”.
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The attack on Saturday involved a Swiss man armed who stabbed and burnt five people as the train neared a station in St. Gallen in northeast Switzerland. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack and even released a video of a young man, described as an “ISIS soldier” and purporting to be the terrorist himself, preparing for a suicide mission.
