Switzerland was reeling yesterday after a gunman shot dead at least 14 people and seriously injured 10 others before turning the gun on himself. The shooting took place in the regional parliament in Zug, just north of Zⁿrich.
The man, dressed in a police uniform, entered the chamber of the parliament at 10.35 a.m.(9.35 Irish time) yesterday morning and began shouting at deputies before shooting wildly with an automatic weapon.
The death toll from the attack rose to 15 yesterday afternoon after a critically injured victim died.
Early reports said at least three members of the local government were killed in the attack but police later said that as many as 11 politicians may have died.
Eyewitnesses say the gunman entered the packed parliament chamber and began shooting at members of parliament and at journalists in the hall, using a handgun and an automatic shotgun, emptying five magazines.
The gunman then left the chamber but returned to throw what is believed to be a hand grenade before shooting himself. The grenade subsequently exploded.
Authorities in Zug confirmed the gunman was dead, but declined to elaborate.
"The shooting lasted around three minutes ... It was like an execution," said Mr Hans-Peter Hausheer, a member of the regional parliament and a witness to the attack.
"As the man bolted up the stairs in a police uniform, we didn't think it was anything unusual. When the first shot was fired, I thought it was a blank, because I really didn't feel anything."
"The man strode through the chamber floor, shooting at people," said Mr Dominik Hertach, a reporter with Swiss news agency STA.
People flung themselves on the floor as an explosion ripped through the building, shattering windows.
Afterwards the chamber was full of smoke, there were casualties lying on the floor.
"There was blood everywhere," Mr Hertach said.
Mr Peter Hess, the president of the National Council assembly in Bern, and a native of Zug, described the shootings as a "killing frenzy ... a terrible, inexplicable act which strikes at the heart of our lives".
"For the moment all investigations are being carried out, we are sure that it has no connection with international terrorism," he added. "It must be the act of a lone, unbalanced perpetrator who was unhappy with something in the administration."
Police found a car outside the building containing more weapons and a letter believed to have been written by the gunman. The letter suggested the man was seeking revenge on authorities after a local dispute, according to Swiss television.
The man, believed to be in his mid-thirties and possibly a former police officer from the Zⁿrich area, wrote in the letter of a "day of reckoning for the Zug mafia", according to Swiss media.
Authorities declined to comment on the gunman or the letter yesterday.
Rescue crews treated those critically injured in the attack on the pavement outside the parliament, and police sealed off the centre of town shortly after the attack. Firemen worked to put out fires in the chamber set alight by the explosion.
"Security at the parliament building in Zug is non-existent," said Mr Elmar Herger, a journalist with Swiss Television. "I go in and out of there all the time and there is never anyone on the door."
"We wanted to keep an open house and let visitors in, but maybe now we have to look at tighter restrictions," said the Swiss national assembly president, Mr Peter Hess, who visited the scene yesterday afternoon.
Security was stepped up on all government buildings around Switzerland yesterday and flags were flown at half-mast.
Some 14 per cent of the Swiss population possess guns, according to statistics from the World Health Organisation, one of the highest levels of gun ownership in Europe.
However at least half of those are army-issued weapons, to be used by Swiss men in their annual military service.
Despite the high level of gun ownership, gun-related crime in Switzerland is among the lowest in Europe, and mass shootings are virtually unheard of.
The wealthy lake-side city of Zug near Zⁿrich has a population of 90,000 and is favoured by many Swiss and international companies because of its low taxes.
Inhabitants of Zug lit candles in memory of the victims.