An Iranian asylum seeker was shot dead by police as he charged at an officer while wielding an axe, the culmination of a four-hour hostage-taking aboard a Swiss regional train service.

Nearly 100 members of the emergency services responded to a hostage-taking aboard a local train service stopped Essert-sous-Champvent train station after passengers managed to contact police to alert them of the situation. A “screaming” 32-year-old Iranian asylum seeker armed with an axe and a knife had tied up at least some of the 14 passengers and the driver of the Sainte-Croix to Yverdon train, leading to a four-hour hostage situation, reports Switzerland’s 20 Minutes.

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While Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitungreports police have said “according to initial investigations, the perpetrator’s motive is still unclear”, nevertheless officers are apparently confident enough to already declare the hostage-taking is “neither terrorist nor jihadist”.

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