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A gunman killed three relatives and a neighbor in a late-night rampage
in a northern Swiss village before turning his weapon on himself,
local police said on Sunday.
Residents heard shots in the town of Wuerenlingen shortly after 11
p.m. (2100 GMT) Saturday, police said. Officers then found five bodies
in a quietresidential neighborhood.
The shooting appears to have been a "relationship crime" or the result
of domestic dispute, Aargau canton (state) police chief Michael
Leupold said at a news conference.
Police "were able to rule out a terrorist background" or any other
danger, he added.
The presumed killer, a 36-year-old Swiss national who was separated
from his wife and the couple's three children, shot dead his
father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, policetold a news
conference.
The gunman is then believed to havekilled a 46-year-old neighbor
outside the house before shooting himself.
Police said the gunman, whom they did not identify, lived in another
part of Switzerland and was known to police for violent behavior. The
murder weapon was unregistered, they said.
Described as police officer
Local media reports described him as a policeman and father of three.
However, the gunman's wife and three children weren't targeted in the
shooting. Wuerenlingen is a town of some 4,500 people northwest of
Zurich, near the German border.
The latest shooting, which follows similar incidents in January and
November, sent shock waves through the tiny Alpine nation.
"This is not possible, we are after all the richest and happiest
country in the world," the German-language Swiss newspaper Blick
wrote, according to the French news agency AFP.
In a report published late last month, Switzerland was found to have
the world's happiest people, sparking a wave of national pride and
media fervor with front-page headlines.
However, according to unconfirmed estimates, there are up to 4.5
million firearms incirculation in the country.
It is one of the world's top countriesin terms of the circulation of
firearms, after theUnited States, Yemen and Serbia.
Material for this report came from Reuters, AP and AFP.
