Shooting at Swiss Rave Event Leaves One Dead, Five Injured
(Bloomberg) — A 22-year-old Italian woman died and five other people were wounded in a shooting at a Swiss rave party that left police puzzling over what was behind the outburst of violence.
Ammunition found at the scene in the town of Aarau, west of Zurich, included rounds typically used for pistols or machine guns, officials said. The fatally shot woman died at the scene and was likely a random victim, police said.
Aargau cantonal police commander Michael Leupold said police are investigating three possible motives: terrorism, a random shooting spree or an act of revenge between criminal gangs. “All three hypotheses have the same probability at this stage,” Leupold told reporters late Sunday.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni identified the deceased woman as Maria Spinelli and said two of the injured were Italian citizens. Four men and one woman between ages 24 and 27 were hospitalized with injuries, police said.
“We are closely following developments through the Foreign Ministry and our diplomatic missions, and we trust the Swiss authorities’ efforts to fully establish what happened and identify those responsible,” Meloni said in a statement.
Swiss-Italian tensions have run high this year after fire erupted at a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana over New Year’s Eve. More than 40 people died, including several Italians. Meloni at the time admonished Swiss authorities for their handling of the investigation.
A manhunt is under way and investigators are considering the possibility that there were two shooters, according to Swiss police.
Early Morning
Police were alerted early Sunday morning to gunfire at the Schachen horse racetrack as the annual Aarauer Rave festival was winding down. Organizers had expected about 2,500 people to attend the event and hundreds were at the site when the shooting began.
“It saddens us all deeply,” Aargau cantonal official Dieter Egli told reporters. “We need to acknowledge that such a thing cannot just happen in the big cities of Europe but that it can happen everywhere.”
“What happened at Aarauer Rave is absolutely heartbreaking,” DJ Tekibo, a techno artist who was performing at the event, said on Instagram. “I lost an important friend,” he said, adding “RIP M.”
–With assistance from Tiago Ramos Alfaro.
(Updates with police press conference starting in second paragraph.)
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