Zug, Switzerland - A lone Swiss gunman killed at least 14 people and injured 10 in a regional parliament building before killing himself on Thursday, police in the town of Zug said.
The man, who appeared to hold a grudge against the local authorities, opened fire with an assault rifle and pistol on local members of the parliament, of whom three were among the dead, a national parliamentary official said.
He was quick to add that the attack, which sprayed the local assembly hall with blood, apparently had no connection with any political aims, but was rather that of a deranged individual.
"There are, unfortunately, 14 people dead, ten wounded of whom eight were seriously hurt," Markus Frigo of Zug's police department said.
Peter Hess, the speaker of the Swiss assembly, the National Council, interrupted a debate in Bern to tell national deputies about the incident.
"Today at 10.30am (08h30 GMT), a lone armed attacker burst into the parliament building in canton Zug and fired wildly around himself with an assault rifle, then he also used a pistol; he fired many shots," Frigo said.
"For the moment all investigations are being carried out, we are sure that it has no connection with international terrorism, it must be the act of a lone, unbalanced perpetrator who was unhappy with something in the administration," he added.
A press conference was scheduled for 5pm (15h00 GMT) in the town.
Swiss radio said that the attacker was disguised as a policeman and emptied five magazines from an automatic rifle before he committed suicide.
"We don't know who he was exactly, but we do know he was Swiss," Frigo said. Media reports said he was from the Zurich region.
More weapons were found in his car, which was parked in front of the building.
Unconfirmed reports said police also found a letter that referred to a "day of reckoning for the Zug mafia".
An ATS reporter, who was covering a session of the local parliament at the time of the shooting, said that "there was blood everywhere", with casualties lying on the floor and small fires burning in the assembly hall.
His voice quivering, the reporter told Swiss television that there appeared to be an explosion, possibly from a grenade, and there was thick smoke inside the hall.
ATS reported that the man started shooting at parliamentarians, followed by members of the local government and then at journalists in the hall.
Among the dead were health director Monika Hutter-Hafliger, public works director Jean-Paul Flachsman and interior department director Peter Brossard, Zurich's Tele24 television reported.
The president of the local government, Hans-Peter Uster, was reportedly among the 10 injured.
There are 80 seats in the parliament of Zug, a small canton, or region, in central Switzerland with 92 000 inhabitants.
Eighty deputies normally sit in the Zug parliament.
About 30 ambulances and two helicopters were rushed to the scene, and the city centre of Zug was immediately sealed off, while local residents described scenes of chaos on the street outside.
"I saw people rushing out of the building. It was really horrible, I was shocked," Viktor Schach, a shopkeeper opposite the parliament bulding, told Swiss TV.
A government spokesperson said Moritz Leuenberger, the Swiss president, was "severely shocked" and would travel to Zug in the afternoon.
Most Swiss men carry out annual military service until the age of 40 and keep their assault rifle at home, but incidents involving army rifles are rarely reported.
"Every soldier in Switzerland has a service weapon of that kind, we don't know if it was one, but it is possible," Frigo said.
Mass shootings equivalent to recent incidents in the United States are virtually unheard of in Switzerland, and there was palpable sense of shock even among Swiss journalists reporting on the incident.
A closely-knit community, the area is favoured in the business community because of its low taxation and attracts many foreign companies. - Sapa-AFP