Schaffhausen station closed on Friday, 6 November over suspicious luggage, trains halted

What happened

Police closed Schaffhausen station and the surrounding area on Friday, 6 November, with the operation starting around 18:00. Police, fire crews and specialists from the Forensic Institute Zurich were sent to a piece of luggage left unattended outside the station building. A spokesperson for the Schaffhausen police confirmed the cause to the news agency Keystone-SDA that evening. The Bahnhofstrasse next to the station was also cordoned off. At 20:00 the operation was still going on, and police did not say how long it would last.

Rail disruption

The SBB said train services through Schaffhausen had been suspended, so no trains ran to or from the town. Watson listed the affected lines as IC, IRE, RE48, S1, S9, S12, S24, S33, S62 and S64. The Alertswiss warning platform advised people to avoid the station grounds and Bahnhofstrasse. Blick reported that many people were stuck at the station, and that a festival was under way in the crowded old town that evening, according to a reader's account.

Unconfirmed bomb threat

Police said they could not yet confirm whether the object posed any danger. Reports on the cause differ. 20 Minuten reported that a bomb was suspected, and a News-Scout account carried by the same outlet said a train driver had announced over the train's public address that the service could not continue because of a bomb threat. The Blick reader said a bus driver had told him the same thing. None of these accounts has been confirmed by police in the reporting available.

What remains unknown

The articles do not say what the object was or whether it was ever found to be dangerous. Police gave no end time for the closure, and Alertswiss gave no end time for its advice to avoid the area.