- ZUG, Switzerland (CNN) --
A gunman disguised as a policeman has shot dead 14 people, including three
politicians, after storming a local Swiss parliament building.
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- The man, who has not been named, is thought to have later
shot himself, leaving a suicide note.
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- Ten people were injured, eight of them critically, after
being caught up in the shooting spree in the small affluent lakeside town
of Zug, near Zurich, at 0830 (GMT) on Thursday.
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- The incident is not believed to be connected to the
September
11 aircraft hijack attacks on New York and Washington, police sai
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- Swiss Parliament Speaker Peter Hess: 'He appeared clothed
as a policeman and started shooting.
- Spokesman Olivier Burger told CNN the incident is thought
to be related to a local dispute.
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- Swiss Radio International reported that while the man
was shooting, he apparently demanded that an appeal he had recently filed
be reviewed by the parliament.
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- The gunman had entered the building armed with a rifle,
pistol and "detonation package." Eighty members of the local
state parliament were attending the regular monthly meeting at the
time.
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- A police statement added: "The gunman was a Swiss
national, resident in the area of Zurich. He was entering the parliament
room armed with a gun and a pistol.
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- "After throwing a detonation package, he killed
14 persons present in the parliament room."
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- A local radio station, Sunshine, which had been present
during the attack, said the man began shooting wildly around him. It added,
the explosion tore off doors from their hinges where the meeting was being
held, The Associated Press reported.
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- "The man strode through the whole floor, shooting
at people," Swiss Telegraphic Agency reporter Dominik Hertach told
television.
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- Hertach said people had thrown themselves to the floor
amid loud screams from the injured.
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- Peter Hess, president of the Swiss national parliament
in Bern, interrupted a regular session of the national parliament to
announce
the death toll. A minute's silence was held.
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- Security at Switzerland's national parliament was
immediately
stepped up following the incident.
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- Reports have said the gun used by the man was an army
rifle, which are issued to all national military conscripts, but can also
be bought over the counter across Switzerland.
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- Conscript rifles, and ammunition, are kept at the
soldiers'
homes. But despite the existence of tens of thousands of these guns they
are very rarely used to commit crimes.
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- Zug is one of Switzerland's 26 cantons and enjoys a high
degree of regional authority, with control over police, cantonal and local
legislation, education, and local taxes.
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- It is one of the smaller cantons, but attracts a large
number of international companies who want to set up shop in an area which
has attractive tax levels.
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