A woman who was jogging in a lakeside park in Switzerland was allegedly killed by a naked man who was screaming and attacking people, said the police, on Wednesday (May 22). The incident took place in the Villa Alma Park in Männedorf on Tuesday evening.
What we know about the attack
According to the local police, the attack took place on Tuesday (May 21) evening on Lake Zurich which is around 20 kilometres southeast of the biggest Swiss city.
“On Tuesday evening a woman was attacked and fatally injured by a man in Mannedorf,” said Zurich cantonal police, adding that the woman had been out jogging.
The attack took place shortly before 8:00 pm (local time) and “passers-by reported a man in Alma Park who was running around naked, screaming and physically attacking other people,” said the police.
It added, “The emergency services who quickly arrived on site found a seriously injured woman lying on the ground.” However, despite “immediate resuscitation” the woman died due to her “serious injuries.”
A nearby resident told Swiss newspaper Blick that they saw the woman lying by the side of a lake. “It couldn’t be a swimming accident because the place isn’t easy to reach. It’s a narrow place that you can only get to via a narrow staircase.”
The Swiss police said that the alleged attacker also assaulted another woman, but she did not sustain life-threatening injuries.
Suspect under arrest
The police have arrested a suspected perpetrator who is said to be a 19-year-old Swiss man. According to media reports, the man attacked people at random before the police arrived.
An employee from the nearby Villa Alma retirement home told Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that the naked man ran around in circles as if in a trance and he also heard screams.
“There are a lot of young people out and about in this park in the evenings. It’s crazy what happened here. I was very shocked when I found out this morning,” Joel Eichenberger, 26, told Blick.
The victim’s identity is subject to an ongoing investigation, said the police. The identity of the suspected perpetrator was also not immediately known.
The Swiss police said that they are investigating the background of the attack and whether the perpetrator and the victim knew each other.
(With inputs from agencies)