On Tuesday afternoon, a man (51) turned him through Bern – Blick has a video of the scene. You can see the attacker, who is dressed in rather dark clothing, walking straight towards a police officer. He wears a baseball cap, a black backpack and… an ax in his hand! Then there’s a bang and the attacker falls to the ground – screaming as the Taser shocks hit him. The man is out of action.
But the situation is not relaxing yet: A woman (46) is targeted by the emergency services. She approaches the crime scene and is beside herself. It appears to belong to the hatchet attacker. A police officer grabs the woman’s arms and pushes her away.
“The man was screaming crazy things”
“My partner and I filmed this video,” says resident Laura Gallati (31) to Blick. “We were in the home office when we suddenly heard noise and screams from outside.” The couple immediately stood on the balcony and tried to get an overview.
“The man screamed nonsense and people ran away because they were scared,” the bank employee recalls. “The man is not known here in the neighborhood, and we’re still wondering what the whole thing was about.” The relief when the man, who had previously smashed several car windows, was put out of action by the police was great. “Those scenes were pretty disturbing.”
“It all happened very quickly”
Hairdresser Claudia Zafrani (38) was also frightened by the hatchet attack. She was about to cut someone’s hair when she suddenly saw two police cars driving up: “I joked with my customer that they would come pick him up now.” But then the yelling started.
“Fortunately there was a customer in the shop who works for the police. He then instructed us to lock the door and go straight to the back of the shop,” says the native of Bern. It all happened very quickly: “We were just able to see how they tapped the man right in front of the entrance and then this woman screamed around. That was probably his girlfriend.”
The incident did not go unnoticed by eyewitnesses
Even Zafrani does not know the two people who made such a riot on Monbijoustrasse on Tuesday: “I have the feeling that the man spoke English. But I’m not sure.”
The incident did not go unnoticed by the hairdresser, she says to Blick the day after. Laura Gallati, who filmed the video of the incident, also says: “We were just glad that we were on the balcony and not in front of the house at the time of the incident.”
Investigations are ongoing
According to a statement from the cantonal police in Bern, the man who was stopped was taken to a police station and examined by a doctor. The 46-year-old woman who had disturbed the police operation was also taken away for further clarification.
Under the direction of the regional public prosecutor’s office in Bern-Mittelland, the cantonal police in Bern have started investigations into the events.
