Switzerland chainsaw attack: Police continue manhunt in Schaffhausen

Over 100 officers are searching for a man who allegedly attacked five people, leaving two seriously injured.

Swiss police officers have closed off the town of Schaffhausen, Switzerland where the attack took place.

Police are searching for a man who attacked five people with a chainsaw in the town of Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The man suspected of carrying out the attack has been named by officers as Franz Wrousis, a 51-year-old believed to live in the woods.

In a statement appealing for help he was described as around six feet two inches tall (190cm) and highly dangerous.

Mr Wrousis, who has been convicted twice before of weapons offences, was believed to have been driving a Volkswagen Caddy although police have since found the vehicle.

A spokeswoman for the police told Swiss television channel SRF that emergency services responded to reports of an attack at 10.39 (12.39 GST) on Monday morning to an office building of a Swiss insurance company.

At a news conference later on police Major Ravi Landolt said that while the assault was not an act of terror, it was not random either.

"This is not an attack against a hypothetical person. This is clearly against people from the insurer," he added.

Two people were seriously injured after the assault but it is thought that their lives are not in danger.

A spokeswoman for health insurer CSS confirmed that two of its employees had been injured and they were receiving treatment in hospital.

In Switzerland there is a mandatory system of insurance with private health insurers.

The old town in Schaffhausen, which lies near the border with Germany, has been cordoned off while the police continue their search.

Over 100 officers are currently involved in the search in the areas surrounding Schaffhausen, which has a population of around 36,000.