GENEVA — Swiss authorities are investigating as a possible "terrorist" attack the stabbing of two women in a department store in the southern city of Lugano, for which a suspect has been arrested. Police said the women's injuries were not life-threatening.
Swiss federal police said on their Twitter feed that an attack "presumably of terrorist motivation" took place in in the Italian-speaking city of Lugano on Tuesday afternoon, and federal prosecutors were investigating.
The federal prosecutors' office said that "an alleged terrorist attack against several people in a department store" had taken place.
Police in the southern Ticino region, which includes Lugano, said a 28-year-old Swiss citizen living in the Lugano area had allegedly attacked two women, wounding one person in the neck with a sharp weapon.
In a statement, the Ticino police said one of the victims sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries, while the other had minor injuries.
Catherine Maret, a spokeswoman for the federal police, said the suspect was "known to police" and had "appeared recently in police investigations with regard to terrorism" — specifically jihadism. She declined to comment further.
She declined to comment on Swiss media reports indicating that the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is great — during the incident.
