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Swiss police rule out terror motive in train hostage drama

An Iranian asylym-seeker who was shot dead after taking hostages on a Swiss train is not thought to have been inspired by terrorism, police said on Friday.

Swiss police rule out terror motive in train hostage drama
Police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel at a press conference in Yverdon after the hostage situation ended. Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP.

The 32-year-old man was shot dead by police on Thursday evening, four hours after he took 12 passengers and a train driver hostage on a train between Yverdon and Baulmes.

The man was armed with an axe, a knife and a hammer, but all of the hostages were freed unharmed after police stormed the train, police said.

“Nothing points us towards a terrorist act or a jihadist act,” police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel told Swiss press.

READ ALSO: Hostage situation on Swiss train ends after police shoot suspect dead

Police said that according to preliminary findings, the man had been unhappy with his conditions as an asylum seeker.

After passengers on the train alerted police, officers negotiated with the suspect on WhatsApp with the help of a Farsi translator.

Officers had to intervene several times during the crisis because of the man’s behaviour before eventually deciding to send in about 60 police to storm the train, said a police statement.

One officer tried to immobilse the man with a taser. When that did not stop him, a second officer opened fire, mortally wounding him as he was trying to reach the hostages, the police statement said.

In one video, filmed by a hostage and posted online by news website 24heures, the man spoke in limited English of his desire to get to England because he was not happy with his situation in Switzerland.

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CRIME

Mystery persists as missing Swiss paintings reappear

One of the Switzerland's top art museums announced Sunday the return of two paintings that went missing last year, refusing to provide details in a case still under investigation.

Mystery persists as missing Swiss paintings reappear

Kunsthaus Zurich offered in June 2023 a reward of 10,000 Swiss francs ($11,100) for information that could help it track one painting by Flemish painter Robert van den Hoecke and another by the Dutch Golden Age artist Dirck de Bray.

The small paintings disappeared when the Kunsthaus took down more than 700 works for cleaning and restoration after a fire broke out in August 2022.

But no trace of the two paintings could later be found.

On Sunday, the museum said only that its restoration experts had confirmed both paintings were in “good condition”, with no indication of how or when they turned up.

Because of ongoing police inquiries, “no further information will be released for the time being,” the Kunsthaus said.

Museum officials had alerted the missing works to the Art Loss Register, the world’s largest database of lost and stolen pieces.

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