'Three killed' in Swiss shooting

Three people, including the suspected assailant, have been killed in a shooting at a factory near the Swiss city of Lucerne, police said.

Seven others were injured in the attack which happened just after 8am Irish time at a wood processing company in the town of Menznau, west of Lucerne.

Kronospan has around 450 employees. It was not clear who the shooter was or what the motive might have been.

Emergency services were at the scene today and the area had been cordoned off.

Last month, a gunman killed three women and injured two men in the Swiss village of Daillon, stirring a debate about Switzerland's firearm laws that allow men to keep guns after their mandatory military service.

There is no national gun register but some estimates indicate that at least one in every three of Switzerland's 8 million inhabitants keeps a gun, many stored at home.

But gun crime is relatively rare, with just 24 gun killings in 2009, which works out to a rate of about 0.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. The US rate that year was about 11 times higher.

Citizens outside the military can apply for a permit to purchase up to three weapons from the age of 18 in a country where sharp shooting and hunting are popular sports.

A shooting in the Zug regional parliament in 2001, in which 14 people were killed, prompted calls to tighten laws, but the majority of Swiss citizens rejected a proposal in 2011 for extra measures such as lock-ups for guns outside service periods.

Agencies