Swiss Police Identify Stabbing Suspect as Militant

Police seen in central Zurich, Switzerland. Reuters file photo
Police seen in central Zurich, Switzerland. Reuters file photo
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Swiss Police Identify Stabbing Suspect as Militant

Police seen in central Zurich, Switzerland. Reuters file photo
Police seen in central Zurich, Switzerland. Reuters file photo

Police have identified a Swiss woman who knifed a victim in the neck and grabbed another by the throat in a Lugano department store in the south of Switzerland on Tuesday as a known militant.

Federal prosecutors have called the incident in the Italian-speaking southern canton of Ticino a suspected terrorist attack and taken charge of the investigation.

The assailant is known to Fedpol from police investigations in 2017 with a militant background, the Federal Office of Police tweeted.

The suspect, a 28-year-old who lives in the area, was in custody after passersby subdued her until police could arrive.

Swiss media cited witnesses as saying she called out that she belonged to ISIS during the attack.

One victim sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries and another was lightly injured.

Switzerland has identified hundreds of residents deemed a threat and militants who have travelled to war zones.

Two men arrested in the town of Winterthur near Zurich this month over possible links to an extremist shooting attack in Vienna that killed four people on Nov. 2 visited the attacker in July.

In September, a man Swiss media dubbed the "Emir of Winterthur" and described as a leading militant in Switzerland was sentenced to 50 months in prison for ties to ISIS.

Federal prosecutors have said that a fatal stabbing of a Portuguese man in September in the town of Morges, in western Switzerland, was still being investigated for a possible "terrorist motive". A Swiss-Turkish national has been arrested.



Russia Captures UK National Fighting Alongside Ukraine in the Kursk Region

Civilians wearing military uniforms take part in a military training organized by Ukrainian soldiers of The Third Separate Assault Brigade in Kyiv, on November 23, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP)
Civilians wearing military uniforms take part in a military training organized by Ukrainian soldiers of The Third Separate Assault Brigade in Kyiv, on November 23, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP)
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Russia Captures UK National Fighting Alongside Ukraine in the Kursk Region

Civilians wearing military uniforms take part in a military training organized by Ukrainian soldiers of The Third Separate Assault Brigade in Kyiv, on November 23, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP)
Civilians wearing military uniforms take part in a military training organized by Ukrainian soldiers of The Third Separate Assault Brigade in Kyiv, on November 23, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP)

The Russian military captured a British national fighting alongside Ukrainian troops in Russia's partially occupied Kursk region, state news agency Tass reported Monday, citing unidentified sources in the law enforcement.
The man was identified by Tass and other media as James Scott Rhys Anderson. Tass quoted him as saying that he had served as a signalman in the British army for four years and then joined the International Legion of Ukraine, formed early on in Russia's nearly 3-year-old war against its neighbor.
In Ukraine, Anderson reportedly served as an instructor for Ukrainian troops and was deployed to the Kursk region against his will. Tass published a video of the man saying in English that he doesn’t want to be “here.”
The report couldn’t be independently verified, but if confirmed it could be the first publicly known case of a Western national captured on Russian soil while fighting for Ukraine.
The UK Embassy in Moscow and the Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.