3 Killed in Switzerland Workplace Shooting

A longtime employee opened fire at a wood-processing company in central Switzerland today, leaving three people dead, including the assailant, in the country's second multiple-fatality shooting in two months, police said. Seven other people were wounded, six of them seriously, in the shooting at the premises of the company Kronospan, in the small town of Menznau. The assailant, a 42-year-old Swiss male, arrived at the premises shortly after 9am, drew a pistol and started firing in the building's canteen area.

Officials didn't immediately have further details on the weapon or how the assailant acquired it. They also did not know how the assailant was killed. Gun ownership is widespread in Switzerland, thanks in part to a long-standing tradition for men to keep their military rifles after completing compulsory military service. The incident occurred as the Swiss parliament prepares to consider tightening some aspects of the country's famously lax gun legislation. (More Switzerland stories.)