A shooting at the annual techno music festival in Aarau, a town in northern Switzerland, has left at least one person dead and five others injured. Local police confirmed the incident and stated they are actively searching for the suspect.
In a social media statement on Sunday, police said the perpetrator's identity remains unknown, and both the motive and the specific circumstances of the incident are under investigation. Large areas of Aarau, located north of Zurich, have been cordoned off, and security forces have increased their presence around the town as a precautionary measure.
According to Swiss newspaper Blick, gunfire erupted before 3 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT) on the sidelines of the Aarauer Rave festival. Approximately 3,500 people attended the techno music event, which ran from 3 p.m. on Saturday to 2 a.m. on Sunday.
Police spokesperson Vanessa Rumpold told Blick that the shooting occurred at the racetrack hosting the event. "Multiple shots were fired in a large crowd," she said. A witness also reported hearing "bursts of gunfire."
Police have urged the public to provide any video or photographic evidence of the incident. Blick also published a reader-submitted video showing a nighttime street scene accompanied by successive gunshots.
Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, though violent shootings are rare. The country adopted stricter gun control regulations in 2019.
