Swiss man arrested after techno rave shooting kills Italian woman

Maria Spinelli was twenty-two years old when she was shot and killed at a techno rave in Aarau, Switzerland, on Sunday morning. She was one of roughly 3,500 people who had gathered at the Schachen horse racing track, a venue about 46 kilometers west of Zurich, for an electronic music event. The shooting began around 2:30 in the morning. Within hours, five other people—four men and one woman, all between twenty-four and twenty-seven—were hospitalized with injuries ranging from minor to severe. Spinelli died at the scene.

A 43-year-old Swiss man was arrested shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Monday, ending a manhunt that had lasted nearly twenty-four hours. Police said they believed he acted alone, though the investigation into what prompted the violence was still in its early stages. An eyewitness told Swiss media he heard gunshots minutes after the music stopped and initially mistook them for fireworks. He said someone told him to hide, and he watched as a woman near him was shot.

The arrest came swiftly after Sunday afternoon, when Aarau cantonal police had said they had no clear leads and were uncertain whether one person or multiple shooters were responsible. The speed of the apprehension suggested either a quick break in the case or information that emerged from the scene itself. Police released little detail about the suspect's identity or background, saying only that they were investigating the sequence of events and the possible motive.

Aarau is a town of about 23,000 people, situated less than 40 kilometers from the German border. Local media reported that German police were supporting Swiss forces in the operation. Italy's government moved quickly to assert its interest in the case. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was confident Swiss authorities would "shed full light on what happened and find anyone responsible." Italy's foreign ministry announced it was sending officials to Zurich to closely monitor the investigation.

Switzerland has one of Europe's highest rates of gun ownership, yet shootings that kill or injure multiple people remain uncommon. The country introduced tighter gun controls in recent years. The last major shooting occurred in 2001, when a gunman killed fourteen members of the parliament and local government in Zug, a town near Lucerne, before taking his own life. That incident, a quarter-century old, underscores how rare such violence has become in the country—and how the Aarau shooting stands as a stark exception to a long period of relative safety.