Posted July 26, 2017 08:56:53

Photo: Police said Franz Wrousis was a client of the health insurer whose offices were attacked. (AP: Schaffhauser Polizei)

A man suspected of carrying out a chainsaw attack in a health insurance office in Switzerland's north has been arrested after a manhunt involving Swiss and German police.

Franz Wrousis was arrested in Thalwil, about 45 kilometres from the scene of the attack in Schaffhausen in the country's north, Swiss police said in a statement announcing the arrest.

Authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for Wrousis, whom they described as aggressive and psychologically unstable.

They said the 50-year-old had two previous convictions for weapons offences and no fixed residence.

Wrousis is accused of attacking two employees of a health insurance company at their office in Schaffhausen's old town on Monday (local time).

Photo: Franz Wrousis had been seen in the forests south of Schaffhausen in recent weeks. (AP: KAPO Schaffhausen)

One of them was seriously hurt, though the injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Authorities say Wrousis, a client of health insurer CSS, targeted the agency, although a motive remained unclear.

Two customers were treated for shock after they witnessed the attack, and another person was slightly injured during the subsequent police operation.

All but one of the five had left the hospital.

Photo: Five people were injured in the incident. (Schaffhausen Police)

In recent weeks, Wrousis was seen several times in forests just south of Schaffhausen.

Police found a minivan he was believed to have been driving shortly after the attack, and searched the region near the German border with helicopters and sniffer dogs.

On Tuesday, they urged people to exercise caution when in the area's forests as long as the suspect remained at large.

As the manhunt continued, the insurance company said it was keeping its offices in Schaffhausen and five other nearby towns closed for now "in view of yesterday's attack".

Police had described Wrousis as potentially dangerous and warned he might be armed.

They also published several photos of the suspect, one of them taken shortly before the attack.

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.

"We didn't see him as a threat or anything," he said, adding the man was, "definitely … a strange guy".

Photo: The incident prompted a two-day manhunt. (AP: Ennio Leanza)

AP/Reuters

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, switzerland