WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Swiss police said Sunday they have arrested a teenager suspected of stabbing and seriously injuring an Orthodox Jewish man on a Zurich street.
Zurich police said in a statement that anti-Semitism was suspected as a motive for Saturday night’s stabbing.
Police said they received a report of an altercation involving several people at 9:35 p.m., and initial findings indicate that the assailant attacked a 50-year-old man and “inflicted serious stab wounds.”
Police said the suspect, a 15-year-old Swiss national, was arrested at the scene.
Police later issued a second statement saying they were increasing security around certain locations associated with Jews as a precaution. They said they made the decision in consultation with Jewish organizations.
The Swiss Jewish Community Organization said it was “deeply shocked that a member of our community was the victim of such an attack.”
“Physical attacks against Jews in Switzerland are extremely rare.” “The Jewish community has been spared such life-threatening attacks for the past 20 years. However, since October 7th, there has been a significant increase in such physical attacks.”
Anti-Semitic acts have increased across Europe since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. . Since then, the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 30,000.
In France, a man wearing a Jewish skull cap was attacked as he emerged from a synagogue in Paris on Friday night, police said.
