Mié, Feb 15th 2023
The Swiss Parliament building, or Bundesplatz, was evacuated and put on lockdown for five hours on Tuesday afternoon.
Swiss police on Tuesday evacuated Switzerland’s Parliament after a man wearing a bulletproof vest and a gun holster was spotted trying to enter the building.
“Federal security staffers noticed a man at the southern entrance of the Parliament building whose appearance — he was wearing a bulletproof vest and weapon holster — and behavior were suspicious,” police said in a statement Tuesday evening. Police were quick to act by arresting the man.
Although the man did not appear to be carrying a bomb, “during a body check that followed, a rapid test turned up explosives,” police said. “As a result, extensive security measures were implemented immediately,” they added.
Police then evacuated Parliament, its surrounding buildings and sealed off the streets in central Bern for the next five hours. Across from the Parliament building they found the man’s abandoned car. Police inspected it using de-mining experts, police dogs and a robot specifically designed for such a scenario.
“Based on the knowledge already available at that time, it could not be ruled out that there were explosives in the car on the Bundesplatz and that the vehicle posed a specific risk,” police said. They found that the car presented no danger. After five hours of keeping central Bern on lockdown, police lifted the emergency measures around 7 in the evening.
Police did not release the suspect’s name, but authorities did say he is a 27-year-old man from the canton Valais. He is currently undergoing physical and mental exams, police say. Federal prosecutors say they have opened a criminal investigation into the man and his motives.
The threat of terrorism has grown in Switzerland since the 1990s, especially among those connected to Islamist extremist groups, police say.
Acts of extreme violence and terrorism are rare for the central European nation. The most recent one documented was in 2020 when a Turkish-Swiss man fatally stabbed a randomly-chosen Portuguese man at a kebab restaurant in canton Vaud. The suspect was already under surveillance by the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) and he confessed to being motivated by his jihadist links. A copycat attack occurred at a Manor department store weeks later. This time, the victim survived the stabbing.
Before that, a handful of terrorism events have been recorded in Switzerland, such as:
-In 1955, Romanian immigrants briefly seized the Romanian embassy in Bern, in protest of the then-ruling communist regime in their homeland. They shot several members of the embassy staff (one died).
-In 1969, four armed Palestinian militants, members of the Lebanese militant organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, attacked an El Al airplane as it was preparing for takeoff at the Zurich International Airport. The plane was on its way to Tel Aviv when the group opened fire and tossed explosives at the plane. The explosives failed to go off, but one staff member was fatally injured.
-In 1970, Swissair Flight 330 had just taken off from Zurich for Tel Aviv, when an explosive went off in the cargo compartment. The crew tried to land the airplane, but it crashed in the nearby woods. All 47 people aboard were killed. The Palestine Liberation Organization claimed that attack.
-In 1976, in Zurich, two bombs caused extensive damage to the offices of Garanti Bank and of the Labor Attaché of the Turkish embassy. The Justice Commandos of the Armernian Genocide took responsibility, saying that they were targeting Turkish diplomats. No one was hurt and a third bomb at a Turkish tourism agency was diffused in time.
-In 1980, the Turkish Ambassador to Switzerland Doğan Türkmen was attacked, but only suffered minor injuries.
Según la Swiss Federal Police in 2005, Switzerland has been described as a “jihadi field of operations” with Al Qaeda members having accounts at Swiss banks, including at UBS. In 2006, Swiss authorities announced that they are working with other countries to monitor suspected terrorists. In 2013, FIS announced that Switzerland is experiencing a heightened threat level of terrorism stemming from Islamic extremist groups.
Este artículo puede compartirse y reimprimirse libremente, siempre que se incluya un enlace al artículo original.
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic