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Swiss Chainsaw Attacker on the Run Amid International Manhunt

by Reuters

   SCHAFFHAUSEN, SWITZERLAND --

   Police with search hounds hunted on Tuesday for a chainsaw-wielding
   loner who mostly lived in the woods, a day after he stormed into an
   insurance office in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen and wounded two
   staff members.

   Police have identified the suspect as 50-year-old Franz Wrousis, a
   drifter with a criminal record, and warned residents that he could
   still be armed for attack.

   It was not clear what may have prompted the man to assault the two
   office workers, one of whom was badly hurt. CSS, whose office Wrousis
   stormed, said he was a client.

   Two other customers in the office were treated for shock, while a fifth
   person was hurt during the police response, the authorities said.

   Authorities issued an international arrest warrant for the suspect as
   the police carried out an intense search.

   A spokeswoman for German federal police said that one of their
   helicopters was being used in the area as part of the manhunt.

   "A big part of the canton's border is actually on the German border, so
   that's why German colleagues are also looking for the guy," a
   Schaffhausen police spokeswoman said.

   CSS offices in Schaffhausen, a quiet medieval town of 36,000 residents,
   and in other parts of the region remained closed while the manhunt
   continued, a company spokeswoman said.

   "I hope they arrest him soon, as it is a threat for other people,
   either here or in other cantons. He has to be found and arrested," said
   local resident Diego Faccani, 52, a clothes and shoe salesman.

   A man who identified himself only as Samuel and who lives in the area
   next to where the suspect's car was found on Monday evening said he had
   often seen the suspect, whom he described as "very disconnected" and
   uncommunicative.

   "He looked like a schizophrenic, but we didn't think that it would be
   that bad. We didn't see him as a threat or anything. We didn't think
   that he was dangerous, but yeah, definitely he was a strange guy," said
   Samuel, who did not want to give his family name.

   "The last time I saw him was on Sunday morning, when I was walking our
   dog. He was standing still, because he saw me coming or somebody else
   coming and he didn't move until everybody else was gone again."

   Police who put part of the old town of Schaffhausen under lockdown on
   Monday were no longer combing the wooded area where the suspect was
   thought to be living and had fanned out across a wider region.