Man ‘stabbed to death’ near Geneva tram stop

Geneva cantonal police were tight-lipped over the weekend about the reported stabbing death of a man in the city on Saturday night.

Published: 23 June 2013 21:33 CEST

Man ‘stabbed to death’ near Geneva tram stop

Place des Augustins, a couple of blocks from the alleged murder. Photo: C. Roth/City of Geneva

The man, originally from Africa, suffered from a knife wound and was seen lying near the Blanche streetcar (tram) stop near the intersection of Rue de Carouge and Rue Blanche, the Tribune de Genève reported online on Sunday, citing information it received.

The Tribune reported the man collapsed in front of numerous witnesses at around 11.30pm.

The person or persons who attacked the man have not been apprehended, the newspaper said.

Geneva police have confirmed the murder but are otherwise not commenting.

The force’s criminal division is in charge of the investigation, the Tribune said.

A witness told the newspaper that ambulance attendants stayed with the man who remained on the ground for about an hour.

The Tribune said it appeared the man died on the spot.

Witnesses said police cordoned off a section of the Rue de Carouge and inspected the pavement with flash lights until 1am on Sunday.

An elderly lady in the neighbourhood said she had heard about a fight in front of a café-restaurant at the Place des Augustins, three blocks away from where the man was found, the Tribune de Genève said.

However, the restaurant owner told the newspaper that “nothing special” occurred outside the restaurant of Saturday night.

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Two victims suffered serious wounds, police said. The attacker was also in hospital being treated for injuries that investigators said were self-inflicted.

The man was “believed to be of foreign origin” and was aged about 40, police said in a statement which added that he was thought to have acted alone.

All of the injured remained hospitalised late Wednesday.

Armed with “sharpened or pointed” metal weapons, the man first lashed out at a passer-by at the railway station in the town of 12,000 people in the Aargau canton, about 60 kilometres (38 miles) west of Zurich, police said.

He then wounded several people seemingly at random before entering a house, police added.

Among those attacked were two teachers from the Zofingen cantonal school, the institution’s director, Patrick Strossler, told 20minuten.ch news website.

The Aargauer Zeitung newspaper quoted one man as saying his pregnant wife had been among those attacked. She was cut in the face but her life was not threatened.

After two hours of negotiations with a specialised team, the man was arrested in the house, police said. The suspect had injured himself and was taken to hospital, said Bernhard Graser, a police spokesman.

Graser told the Zofinger Tagblatt newspaper that the attacker’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Police have called for witnesses to share video or photos that may be useful for their investigation.

Images shown by Aargauer Zeitung showed a large deployment of police and emergency vehicles. The security forces had assault rifles and bullet-proof vests.

A police helicopter landed on a nearby sports field, causing the local youth football team to cut short a training session, the newspaper said.