A poster advertising a rave where the shooting occurred at a covered racing track. Photograph: Harold Cunningham/AFP/GettyView image in fullscreenA poster advertising a rave where the shooting occurred at a covered racing track. Photograph: Harold Cunningham/AFP/GettyWoman, 22, killed and five injured in shooting at Swiss rave Manhunt under way after Italian dies from her injuries in the town of Aarau in the early hours of Sunday
A manhunt is under way in Switzerland after a 22-year-old woman was killed and five people were injured, some seriously, in a shooting at a rave in the northern town of Aarau, local police have said.
In the attack in the early hours of Sunday at a techno party at a covered horse racetrack , an Italian woman died from her injuries at the scene, authorities said. All those caught up in the shooting were residents of Switzerland and in their 20s.
Police appealed to the public for any images of the incident, saying large areas of the town had been cordoned off in the search for one or more attackers.
“We have no definite information about who is behind the attack, a police spokesperson, Bernhard Graser, told Reuters. “We don’t know if it’s one, if it’s several people, if they are on the run by vehicle or on foot.”
View image in fullscreenPolice officers patrol a street in Aarau on Sunday. Photograph: Michael Buholzer/EPAA 34-year-old witness who asked for anonymity said he heard shots shortly after the music stopped at 2:30 am on Sunday, which he initially mistook for fireworks.
Some took cover behind a DJ booth and one woman hid behind a refrigerator but was hit in the back by a bullet and bled to death despite efforts to revive her, he said.
“It’s just incredibly tragic. She was young,” he said. “That something like this could happen in Aarau, at a local event, is simply unimaginable. I still can’t really process it.”
Police have increased their presence beyond the town – about 50 km west of Zurich and 30km south of the German border – as a precaution, police said there were indications the shooter or shooters were no longer in the immediate area.
View image in fullscreenPolice secure the area around the Schachen racing track following the shooting. Photograph: Michael Buholzer/Keystone/AP“But still have a lot of police here in the area, in the town of Aarau, in the whole state [canton] to make sure that we could get them if they’re still around,” he said.
Reuters footage showed armed officers patrolling the area, police convoys moving through the streets and armoured vehicles parked near the crime scene.
Organisers of the annual rave said they were shocked and heartbroken by the incident. “A rave should always be a place of joy and love, never a place where people are killed, injured, or left in fear,” they said.
Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe although violent shootings are rare and it approved tighter gun control rules in 2019.
