- Written by Imogen Fawkes & Ian Casey
- BBC News, Geneva and London
image source, Getty Images
Police tried to talk to the hostage taker for several hours.
Swiss police took 15 passengers hostage on a train Thursday night and shot dead a man armed with an ax and a knife.
The hostage-taker, reportedly a 32-year-old asylum seeker from Iran, boarded a local train near Yverdon.
He forced the driver to stop the train and load the passengers into the cars.
According to a police report, the officers rushed into the train and attacked the man, “causing fatal injuries.” All hostages were released unharmed.
According to local media, more than 60 police officers were dispatched after passengers on the train alerted authorities.
Police, including members of Geneva's special forces, surrounded the train and spent several hours trying to communicate with the man in English and Farsi, without success.
In the middle of the night, they saw the hostage takers walking away from the passengers and attacked the train using stun grenades.
Police said the man attacked police, who used a gun to protect the hostages and themselves, and the hostage-taker was shot and killed.
Police say the hostage's motive is unknown. One train passenger said the gunman appeared to be “very stressed”.
Local reports said the hostages and their families were being assisted by the psychology department of the Swiss Health Authority.
Little is known about the man, other than that he was originally from Iran and was assigned to an asylum seeker center in Neuchâtel.
Hostage dramas are rare in Switzerland, but they have happened before at banks and companies. In January 2022, an employee of a watch manufacturing company was taken hostage and forced to open a safe.
