This is the man police are hunting over a chainsaw rampage that left five injured in a Swiss town.

Officers say the Franz Wrousis, 51, broke into the offices of insurance firm CSS-Krankenkasse in the town of Schaffhausen before targeting the employees.

Two were badly wounded and required surgery, a police spokesman said, without releasing more information on the other three victims.

The alleged attacker, who has two previous weapons convictions, is still on the loose, and armed police have warned people to shelter in their homes as they launched a huge manhunt for the 6ft 2ins suspect.

Police are hunting 51-year-old Franz Wrousis over a chainsaw rampage that left five injured in a Swiss town

Five people have been injured after a man wielding a chainsaw went on the rampage in a Swiss town

The suspect attacked people in Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland, according to police who have launched a manhunt

A spokeswoman said officers were searching for the suspect in Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland

Prosecutor Peter Sticher said the man had no fixed address but had previously been registered as living in the south-eastern Swiss state of Graubuenden.

Police official Ravi Landolt said Wrousis' two previous convictions date back to 2014 and 2016.

He is believed to be driving a white Volkswagen Caddy vehicle with Swiss plates.

Police warned 'the suspect is dangerous', but said it was not clear whether he still had the chainsaw.

Wrousis is a schizophrenic who was a client of the health insurance firm whose employees he attacked with a chainsaw, police said on Monday evening.

He is of no fixed abode and, in between living in hotels and community lodgings, routinely camped out in woodland.

Police said they had reports that for the last three weeks he had been living out of his VW Caddy.

Armed police descended on the scene this morning as they launched a manhunt for the attacker

Officers say the Franz Wrousis, 51, broke into the offices of insurance firm CSS-Krankenkasse in the town of Schaffhausen before targeting the employees

Investigators search for evidence after closing down Schaffhausen's old city on Monday

Officers examine evidence after five people were wounded in the chainsaw attack

Authorities are still searching for the alleged attacker, pictured is public prosecutor Peter Sticher (left) and head of police Ravi Landolt (right)

The health insurance company with a ground-floor office in the Schaffhausen building where the attack took place said two of its employees had to be taken to a hospital.

'We can confirm that a man with a chainsaw came into the agency and seriously wounded two of our employees,' said Christina Wettstein, a spokeswoman for insurer CSS. 'They are undergoing operations at the moment and we don't know how they are.'

The company doesn't know yet whether the other three wounded people were customers or passers-by, she added.

Pictures show someone being treated and led to an ambulance outside a McDonald's restaurant in the town.

Media reports said the unknown attacker first struck close to a bookstore called World View.

Eyewitnesses saw a man with blood streaming down his face helped from the premises by police and paramedics.

The alleged attacker, who has two previous weapons convictions, is still on the loose, and armed police have warned people to shelter in their homes as they launched a huge manhunt for the 6ft 2ins suspect

People had to leave their homes and the shops in the area as police systematically began locking down entire streets to capture the attacker

Schaffhausen, a town of nearly 35,000, is in northern Switzerland, close to the border with Germany

According to another witness a second victim was stretchered out of the building.

People had to leave their homes and the shops in the area as police systematically began locking down entire streets to capture the attacker. A helicopter circled over the old town as police reinforcements poured in.

Cindy Beer, spokesman for the local police, confirmed the casualties and said the attacker was the subject of an intense manhunt.

She said police were called at 10.39am but was unable to confirm if the man was armed with a chainsaw.