A five-year-old boy was ‘seriously injured’ and two other children were hurt in a vicious knife attack outside a kindergarten in Switzerland, police have said.
The youngsters were walking to a daycare centre in northern Zurich on Tuesday when they were suddenly attacked.
A 23-year-old Chinese man has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack and is being questioned by police.
The attack happened at around midday on Berninastrasse, a largely residential street in the Oerlikon district in the north of Switzerland’s biggest city.
‘According to initial findings, a daycare worker was on her way to a daycare centre with several children when a man suddenly attacked the children with a blade,’ Zurich police said in a statement.
Police officers pictured outside the day care centre in Zurich, Switzerland
The children were among a group who were walking to the centre in northern Zurich at around midday local time when they were suddenly attacked
Armed police and emergency services swooped on the scene after being alerted to the attack
‘The daycare worker reacted immediately and overpowered the attacker with the help of a man, and held the suspected perpetrator until the emergency services arrived.’
‘One seriously wounded boy and two moderately injured boys aged five were given first aid’ by emergency services ‘and then taken to hospital’, the statement added.
Armed police and emergency services swooped on the scene after being alerted to the attack, and arrested the suspect.
All of the victims were boys aged five and they received first aid from paramedics at the scene before being taken to hospital.
Local residents in the area of Berninastrasse described seeing terrified parents running to find their children as news of the horrific events emerged.
‘I heard children screaming and then a lot of police officers arrived,’ a woman at the scene told reporters.
Police officers near an after-school care facility in Zurich on Tuesday
The area was cordoned off and the doors to the daycare centre were covered up
A police cordon off the area where a man attacked several children, injuring three
Local outlet Blick reports that a father whose son goes to the daycare centre ducked underneath the police barrier and ran towards the door, with his friend telling a reporter that the man ‘is panicking and wants to know what’s going on’.
The father said after being sent back behind the police barrier: ‘I don’t know if my son is OK!
‘The police sent me away again. I don’t know where my son is, they just told me that he is unharmed, but I can’t go to him.’
‘There are at least six to seven police cars on site. The ambulance is also on the square with several vehicles,’ an eyewitness told local media of the major operation.
‘Shortly after twelve o’clock, the Zurich City Police were alerted to a violent crime on Berninastrasse. Three children were injured,’ said the Zurich City Police in a press release.
‘A suspect was arrested in connection with this. There is no longer any danger to the public.’
A police officer standing guard close to the scene of the attack today
The attack happened at around midday on Berninastrasse, a largely residential street in the Oerlikon district in the north of Switzerland’s biggest city
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