A 22-year-old woman was killed and five other people were wounded in a Swiss rave shooting early Sunday in Aarau. Pascal Wenzel said authorities were alerted to the shooting shortly after 2:30 a.m., as police searched for whoever carried it out.
The event was the Aarau Rave VOL. 7, held at a horse-racing track in the Schachen area of Aarau in Aargau canton. Aargau cantonal police said the woman died from her injuries at the scene, while four men and another woman were taken to hospitals.
Schachen area response
The injured people were between 24 and 27 years old, and police said their injuries ranged from minor to serious. All six victims were residents of Switzerland, and police urged members of the public to stay away while the search continued.
The response stretched beyond the track itself. Police cordoned off a large area around the horse-racing track, swimming pool and nearby sports field, and increased their presence elsewhere in Aarau as a precaution.
Pascal Wenzel timeline
The timing sharpened the case. The event was scheduled to end at 2 a.m., but Wenzel said authorities were alerted shortly after 2:30 a.m., leaving police to treat the scene as an active search rather than a concluded gathering.
Police said the perpetrator or perpetrators remained unidentified and that possible motives and the circumstances were still unclear. The response included police officers, firefighters and several emergency medical services, along with the Argus police special unit, a cantonal disaster-response unit and a Swiss military Super Puma helicopter.
Search beyond Aarau
Police in neighboring Germany assisted with the search as part of routine cross-border cooperation. Investigators also asked witnesses to provide videos or photographs from the event and set up an information line for relatives and eyewitnesses.
For people tied to the rave, the practical question now is whether anything they recorded can help identify who fired. For everyone else in Aarau, the immediate instruction from police is simpler: stay away from the cordoned area until the search and scene work are finished.
