Chainsaw attacker wounds five in Switzerland rampage, police launch manhunt

Chainsaw attacker wounds five in Switzerland rampage, police launch manhunt
Swiss police officers at a crime scene in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, July 24, 2017. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

A man armed with a chainsaw wounded at least five people, two of them seriously, on Monday, July 24, in a small Swiss town that was then put into lockdown as police hunted for the suspect.

Swiss police officers stand at a crime scene in Schaffhausen, Switzerland July 24, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Swiss police officers stand at a crime scene in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, July 24, 2017. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

Police said the attack was “not an act of terror.”

They identified the suspect as 51-year-old Franz Wrousis, describing him in a statement as bald, unkept, and around 190 cm (6 feet 3inches0 tall, and appealed for help from the public.

Picture shows a street cordoned off following an attack by an unidentified man in Schaffhausen, Switzerland July 24, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. Sebastian Kummer via REUTERS
A picture from social media shows a street cordoned off following an attack by an unidentified man in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, July 24, 2017. (Sebastian Kummer via Reuters)

Police later released photos of the suspect.

(Schaffhausen Police)
(Schaffhausen Police)

The attack happened inside an office building on a shopping street in the center of Schaffhausen, a medieval town of 36,000 inhabitants on the German border, police said.

Police cordoned off the area and ordered people to leave, Swiss newspaper Blick said. Witnesses saw bleeding victims being treated by rescue crews, it reported.

Helicopter ambulances were on the scene.