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A shooting at an outdoor rave near the Swiss city of Aarau killed a 22-year-old woman and wounded five other people early on Sunday, and police spent the day hunting the attacker. Aargau cantonal police were alerted around 2:30 a.m. to gunfire at the Schachen horse racing track, where the "Aarau Rave VOL. 7" was winding down. The wounded, four men and one woman aged 24 to 27, were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to severe. Aarau, the cantonal capital, sits about 29 miles west of Zurich and roughly 18 miles from the German border.
All of the victims were residents of Switzerland, and police withheld their names under Swiss privacy rules. On Sunday evening, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni identified the woman who died as Maria Spinelli, an Italian citizen, and said two of the wounded were also Italian. Aargau police spokesman Bernhard Graser said the search was continuing "nonstop at full speed," and that officers were looking for one or more suspects.
Investigators have not named a motive. Asked whether the attack could be terrorism, Graser said the fact that the event was already ending suggested that was not the case, and that a fight was also possible. The fire department cordoned off a large area around the track, and a major police operation continued through Sunday afternoon as officers searched the site. Officers, firefighters and ambulances were on the scene in large numbers, and locals were told to stay away from the area. Police moved the remaining ravegoers to a nearby gym and questioned them, and asked witnesses to share any photos or video.
Some in the crowd first mistook the gunfire for fireworks, until people began shouting for everyone to get down. Police in Freiburg, across the border in Germany, joined the search, and Aargau officers said they had ruled out any further threat from the attacker or attackers. Public shootings are rare in Switzerland even with widespread gun ownership, and police described the scale of Sunday's response as extraordinary. The attack adds to a run of security scares at large public events in Europe, where crowded festivals and night gatherings are hard to secure.
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