Three wounded in shooting near Zurich Islamic center, target unclear

[H!TchHiker]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-shooting-idUSKBN1481X0

By Michael Shields and Arnd Wiegmann | ZURICH
Three people were wounded in a shooting near an Islamic center in central Zurich on Monday, police said.

Swiss media said a suspect was on the run after the incident near the main train station in Switzerland's financial capital.

It was not immediately clear whether the Islamic center or any of the other businesses registered buildings nearby, were the target of the attack, or what any motive might have been.



People at the scene told Reuters they prayed at the center, which was used as a mosque, often by Somalis.

Zurich police confirmed people had been wounded in the incident on Zurich's Eisgasse, but gave no more details. A police official was expected to make a statement.

Police had sealed off the block. Roughly 20 police officers were present and an ambulance had driven away, a Reuters witness said. There was no word on the condition of the wounded.

The center is registered as an association enabling Muslims to practice their religion, particularly through instruction on Islamic beliefs and teachings, as well as providing for the preservation of Islamic cultural values and scientific seminars, according to Swiss business data website Moneyhouse.

Across Switzerland, two thirds of its 8.3 million residents identify as Christian but the nation has been wrestling with the role of Islam as its Muslim population has risen to 5 percent, particularly with the arrival of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia.

In 2009, a nationwide vote backed a constitutional ban on new minarets.

RELATED COVERAGE

• Unknown man opened fire in Zurich mosque, wounds three: police

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland said the center was not a member and it did not have any direct knowledge of the incident.

Another umbrella group, the Swiss Islamic Central Council, was not immediately available for comment.



(Writing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

[Hassan Guy]

oh dear

 

[Sheikh Rauf]

This is open but there might be alot more in back end.
We will see alot of things happening in peaceful places.
This bulls!t sud be stopped. People sud be worried about Aleppo genocide.
Every human life is valuable. I hope peace prevail.

 

[ULKU-1]

lots of attacks today

 

[That Guy]

lots of attacks today

It's close to christmas, and ISIS and European right wing terrorists want to send a message.

 

[Khanate]

A body was found a few hundred metres (yards) from the scene, an AFP photographer said, but it was unclear if it was connected to the shooting, which took place inside the city's Islamic Centre, near the central station.

Source: Al Jazeera

 

[Devil Soul]

Three hurt in shooting at Muslim prayer hall in Zurich: police
By AFP
Published: December 20, 2016
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Swiss police are seen behind a police cordon outside a Muslim prayer hall, central Zurich, on December 19, 2016. PHOT: AFP

A man burst into a Muslim prayer hall in the Swiss city of Zurich on Monday and started shooting, injuring three men, according to police, who have launched a manhunt for the shooter.

A body was found a few hundred metres (yards) from the scene, an AFP photographer said, but it was unclear if it was connected to the shooting, which took place inside the city’s Islamic Centre, near the central station.

At around 5:30 pm, an unknown person entered the Islamic Centre, where several worshippers were gathered, and began shooting, Zurich police said in a statement.

Muslim students targeted in California campus attacks

He “fired several shots at the worshippers,” police said.

“Three men, aged 30, 35 and 56, were injured, some seriously. The suspect then escaped from the mosque in the direction of Central Station,” the statement said.

Witnesses had described the shooter as a man aged around 30 wearing dark clothes and a dark woollen cap, witnesses said.

“The city and cantonal police immediately launched a major search for the unknown perpetrator,” the statement said.

Swiss media said the three wounded people were found in the street where the prayer hall is located.

Police have urged witnesses who were in the area around the time of the shooting to come forward.

Hijab-wearing Muslim woman attacked in London

They did not immediately provide any details about the suspected motive for the shooting.

Around a dozen people were inside the prayer hall at the time of shooting, the ATS news agency reported, citing a number of people on site, adding that a prayer service had been scheduled for 4:45 pm.

The worshippers were mainly from North Africa, Somalia and Eritrea, ATS reported.

Police have sealed off the area and were late Monday scouring the streets for the shooter, carrying lamps and using sniffer dogs.

They have blocked of Eisgasse, the street where the Islamic Centre is located, as well as a nearby bridge, where the body was found, the AFP photographer said.

The body was discovered on the river bank, underneath the bridge, and had been draped with a white sheet.

A number of Swiss mosques, including one near Zurich and the main one in Geneva, have in recent months been accused in media of allowing or encouraging the radicalisation of their worshippers, especially the younger members of their congregations.

Switzerland, a country of some eight million people, reportedly has around 450,000 Muslims.

 

[YeBeWarned]

War on Terror is turning into Clash of Ideologies ... Brace yourself

 

[terry5]

A man who shot three people at a Zurich mosque is dead, police said, confirming that a body found near the scene was that of the assailant.

Key points:

• Police say they have identified the dead man found near the crime scene as the suspected shooter
• Two of the three victims were seriously injured in the attack
• Centre is registered as association enabling Muslims to practice their religion

Zurich cantonal police said authorities had identified the suspect, but gave no details.

The gunman had stormed into the Islamic centre and opened fire on worshippers.

"The dead man found around 300 metres from the scene of the crime after the shooting in the mosque is the suspect," a statement on a police website said.

Two of the three victims — aged 30, 35 and 56 — were seriously injured in the attack, which took place near the main train station in Switzerland's financial capital.

A third sustained less severe injuries.

Police had identified the suspect only as a man around 30 years old wearing dark clothing and a dark woollen cap, who fled the mosque after the attack.

The centre is registered as an association enabling Muslims to practice their religion, particularly through instruction on Islamic beliefs and teachings, as well as providing for the preservation of Islamic cultural values and scientific seminars, according to Swiss business data website Moneyhouse.

Across Switzerland, two thirds of its 8.3 million residents identify as Christian, but in recent years the country's Muslim population has risen to 5 per cent.

In 2009, a nationwide vote backed a constitutional ban on new minarets.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland said the centre was not a member and it did not have any direct knowledge of the incident.

Reuters

 

[Russell]

I'm gonna go ahead and say what everyone else is thinking....

Hurry up and release the name of the attacker!

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

@Kaptaan any analysis ? this happened on the same day.

 

[Russell]

oh wait...they're calling him a devil worshipper....

https://twitter.com/x/status/811198731739627520

 

[Khafee]

GENEVA — A gunman who wounded three people attending prayers after opening fire at an Islamic center in Zurich has been found dead, apparently after committing suicide, the Swiss police said on Tuesday.

Officials described the man as a 24-year-old Swiss citizen of Ghanaian descent, but they did not identify him by name. They said he had no known links to terrorist groups, but that he was already wanted for the fatal stabbing of a friend whose body was found on Sunday at a playground in Zurich.

“We don’t believe it was a terror act,” Christiane Lentjes Meili, the chief of police for the canton of Zurich, said of the attack on Monday. “We have no evidence of a connection to terrorism.”

Three men were wounded in the attack, two of them seriously; all are in stable condition.

The attack occurred around 5 p.m. at a prayer center used mostly by Somali and Eritrean refugees, just south of the city’s main train station. Hours after the attack, the police found the body of a man on the Gassner Bridge, near the city center and a short walk from the Islamic center.

Witnesses to the attack reported that the gunman, dressed in dark clothes and a woolen cap, had escaped on foot. The police in Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, used tracker-dog units to hunt the gunman.

On Tuesday morning, Peat Jost, a spokesman for the Zurich police, confirmed in a phone interview that the gunman was the man whose body had been found. “Our investigation says the dead man is the shooter,” he said.

The shooting came as Germany was reeling from an attack on Monday in Berlin, where a truck rammed into a Christmas market and killed 12 people. Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that it was a terrorist attack.

The stabbing victim, a 25-year-old Swiss citizen of South American origin, and the assailant were acquaintances, but they had a falling out several months ago, the police said. The assailant was identified based on DNA found at the scene of the stabbing, and the police had already begun an intensive search for him before the shooting on Monday.

Police officers said that evidence in the assailant’s apartment suggested that he had an interest in the occult, but that the motive for the shootings was unclear.

Ms. Meili said she could not confirm reports that before opening fire, the assailant had shouted for the worshipers to go back to where they came from.

The victims were from Somalia or Eritrea, Ms. Meili said, adding that she did not have precise information about each one.

The attacker, who recently quit a job at a local store, had been arrested as a teenager for bicycle theft but had no other police record, Ms. Meili said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/world/europe/zurich-mosque-attack.html?_r=0