Riots engulf Swiss city after boy ‘of a migrant background’ killed during police chase

Switzerland – considered to be one of Europe’s most peaceful countries –has been engulfed by 48 hours of riots after a teenager was killed during a police chase.

The 17-year-old died while trying to escape the officers, who allege he was riding a stolen scooter.

Police raced after him, with the car’s blue lights flashing, at a distance of more than 100 metres.

According to initial investigations, the teenager lost control of the scooter as he drove over a speed bump, and crashed into the wall of a garage.

Despite attempts to resuscitate him, the victim died at the scene.

Swiss media reported that the boy, who has not yet been named officially by authorities, was of a migrant background, which has only inflamed the already fragilerelations between authorities and immigrant communities.

The incident happened in the city of Lausanne, in the French-speaking region of Vaud, just before 4am on Sunday.

By the evening, more than 100 masked teenagers gathered in the district of Prélaz, hurling fireworks at police, overturning and torching bins, and even damaging a bus belonging to the Lausanne transport company.

Footage showed burning containers and volleys of fireworks while armed police clashed with the crowd.

Police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, while firefighters extinguished the blazes.

A local councillor for the right-wing, anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP), Thibault Schaller, was at the scene and claimed he was attacked.

In a post on his X account, he said he was surrounded by 10 to 15 people who hit him from all sides.

He wrote: ‘Buses and trash cans set on fire in Prélaz (Lausanne) in reaction to the death of the 17-year-old youth who died Sunday morning while fleeing the police on a stolen scooter.

‘Unaware of what it’s about, I head to the scene. Some antifa recognize me, three surround me, back against the wall, and they order me to leave.

‘I refuse and ask what’s happening. One pushes me, I push him back then step back, someone shouts something, and ten, fifteen people come running at me from everywhere.

‘I run away, take hits, they block my path, I fall, protect myself, I pick up while one or two people tell me to leave. I get up, run, get surrounded again against a wall, blows, then I manage to get away by running.’

Schaller said he was ‘fine,’ but added that ‘we need to take the city back.’

His party, SVP, has been vocal against what it claims to be ‘uncontrolled immigration’ and has pushed for population limits.

For many residents in Lausanne, the boy’s death is not seen as an isolated tragedy but as part of a broader pattern of discriminations, and the unrest reflects the mounting frustration.

The riots continued for a second night on Monday, but police confirmed that the situation is under control.

The public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Vaud has opened a criminal investigation into the death of the teenager.

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