Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Police hunt killer of man shot dead in St Gallen street

Police have launched a manhunt after a man was shot dead in a St Gallen street at 5am on Thursday morning.

Published: 12 May 2016 10:34 CEST

Police hunt killer of man shot dead in St Gallen street

Photo: St Gallen police

According to police in the northeastern Swiss city, the victim was shot by an unknown perpetrator on Webergasse not far from St Gallen’s famous Baroque abbey in the Old Town.

The assailant fled towards Gallusplatz.

Despite receiving immediate treatment, the victim – a 42-year-old man – died at the scene.

Police are appealing for information to help catch the perpetrator, who was described by a witness as aged between 40 and 50, overweight, wearing light blue jeans, a dark jacket and a cap, and carrying a blue umbrella.

Anyone with information is requested to call St Gallen cantonal police on 058 229 49 49.

The murder comes just days after another man was shot dead near a bakery in the Vernier area of Geneva.

The man, in his 30s, was shot “several times in the head” outside the bakery on Avenue des Libellules on Monday around 6pm, a witness told paper 20 Minutes.

The perpetrator, who police believe knew the victim, was arrested at the scene.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

How to avoid the 'police' phone scam in Switzerland

Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been monitoring the phenomenon of fake calls from alleged police authorities for nine months now.

But in the last three weeks, reports of this scam have almost tripled, the NCSC said, indicating just how widespread it is.

What is this about?

The scam begins with a call coming, allegedly, from police or another Swiss authority.

A voice, which the NCSC describes as ‘robotic’, informs the person who answers the call that their personal banking data is involved in criminal activities, or makes a similar alarming (but false) claim.

According to the NCSC, “it is not a person who calls, but a software The machine randomly tries Swiss phone numbers throughout the day. If the number is invalid, it simply moves on to the next one.”

“By using this software, the number of calls that can be made is virtually unlimited. It could go through practically all the phone numbers in Switzerland in a day,” the Centre adds.

After raising alarm about your bank account, the fake ‘policeman’ will urge you to “press 1” to be put in touch with a human being and obtain more information.

If you do this and, worse yet, divulge your personal data to the caller, you risk having your computer and credit card hacked.

What should you do (and not do) if you get this call?

The most obvious answer is to immediately hang up because, as the NCSC explains, “real police never play recorded phone messages. They also never ask for money or sensitive personal data over the phone.”

To that end, the Centre recommends that anyone receiving this call:

Should hang up as soon as you hear the recorded message
Not press 1, or any other numbers, during the telephone conversation
Not get drawn into a conversation.
Never grant access to your computer, not even via remote maintenance software.
Never reveal prepaid card activation codes.

A fake tax refund

While the ‘police scam’ is the latest attempt at extortion reported to the NCSC, it is far from a unique case.

Scores of them are reported to the authorities each year, including the one reported earlier in 2024.

It involved phishing emails about alleged tax refund entitlements.

However, the link in the email leads to a phishing page.

Here too, authorities advise to ignore these emails, not click on the link, and not enter any personal data on the phishing page.

READ ALSO : The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of

Url copied to clipboard!