(Reuters) A Swiss woman who knifed a victim in the neck and grabbed another by the throat in a Lugano department store on Tuesday was a known jihadist who fell in love with a militant online and tried in vain to meet him in Syria, police said on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors have called the incident in the Italian-speaking southern canton of Ticino a suspected terrorist attack and taken charge of the investigation.
“Police investigations in 2017 revealed that the woman had formed a relationship via social media with a jihadist fighter from Syria,” the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) tweeted.
Turkish authorities turned her back from the border to Syria when she tried to travel there to meet the man, and returned her to Switzerland at the time, it added.
