Five injured in Switzerland chainsaw attack

Schaffhausen (Switzerland)

A man armed with a chainsaw stormed into an insurance office in a small Swiss town on Monday, wounding two members of staff and three other people before fleeing.

Police, who put the centre of Schaffhausen into lockdown and launched a manhunt, said the attack was "not an act of terror".

They said they had identified the attacker, but did not name him, describing him in a statement appealing for help from the public as bald, unkempt and around 190 cm (six feet three inches) tall. Two of the victims were seriously injured.

Swiss health insurer CSS said two of its employees were injured when the suspect stormed their office on a shopping street in the centre of Schaffhausen, a medieval town of 36,000 inhabitants on the German border

"They're currently in the hospital and being operated on," a spokeswoman said.

CSS did not yet have information on any possible link the suspect might have to the company, she said, and also did not know if the three others injured were customers or passersby.

Police said they had recovered a vehicle sought in connection with the incident, which they said was apparently the work of the single suspect. Reuters