The following is a list of massacres and mass murders that have occurred in Switzerland. A mass murder involves the murder of four or more people during the same incident.[1]
width=12% | Date | width=8% | Location | width=4% | Dead | Description |
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Bern | Jewish community killed by burning. One of the earliest massacres of the 1348/1349 persecutions in a German speaking city.[2] | |||||
Zofingen | 4 + x | Four Jews killed in autumn after they had confessed under torture to have poisoned the wells. The Jewish community of Zofingen was likely burnt soon after in November 1348. | ||||
Solothurn | Jewish community killed by burning. | |||||
Basel | 50-70 | Basel massacre Jewish community burnt. | ||||
Schaffhausen | Jewish community burnt.[3] | |||||
Zürich | ≈60 | Zürich massacre The best source dates the event on evening of Feb 23 without giving further details. One source dates the event on Feb 21. The Jewish community of Zürich at that time had about 100 members out of a population of 6,000. Sources indicate that several women and children were spared as were those willing to accept baptism. | ||||
Winterthur | 330 | Winterthur massacre Jewish community of Winterthur and several other cities (among them Aarau) under the rule of Duke Albrecht of Austria burnt on a hill called Brühlberg. Albrecht tried in vain to protect the Jews by sheltering them for several months in his castle Kyburg, 7 km south of Winterthur. | ||||
Schaffhausen | 30 | Schaffhausen massacre Jews executed by burning. | ||||
Greifensee | 62 | Murder of Greifensee Garrison of a castle beheaded after successful siege, part of the Old Zürich War. | ||||
Canton of Nidwalden | 400+ | Catholics killed by French Troops. | ||||
width=12% | Date | width=8% | Location | width=8% | Canton | width=4% | Dead | width=4% | Injured | width=4% | Total | Description |
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Hellbühl | Canton of Lucerne | 4 | 0 | 4 | A man shot and killed a couple and their two farmhands..[4] [5] | |||||||
Romanshorn | Canton of Thurgau | 7 | 7 | 14 | Romanshorn shooting Seven people shot, seven more injured including the mentally ill perpetrator. | |||||||
Republic and Canton of Ticino | 6 | 8 | 14 | A man killed five people and wounded eight others in a shooting spree. The gunman killed himself.[6] [7] | ||||||||
Zürich | Canton of Zürich | 5 | 1 | 6 | After his wife petitioned for divorce, a man killed four family members and wounded another before committing suicide.[8] | |||||||
Geneva | Canton of Geneva | 13 | 65 | 78 | November 1932 Geneva shooting Police and army fired on a crowd protesting a fascist demonstration. | |||||||
Eaux Vives | Canton of Geneva | 5 | 7 | 15 | A man caused an explosion which killed him and four others. Seven people were wounded.[9] | |||||||
Zürich | Canton of Zürich | 7 | 0 | 7 | A man killed six family members and himself.[10] [11] | |||||||
Würenlingen | Canton of Aargau | 47 | 0 | 47 | Swissair Flight 330 A bomb exploded on board of a plane killing forty-seven people. | |||||||
Seewen | Canton of Solothurn | 5 | 0 | 5 | Seewen murder case Five people shot. The crime has never been solved. | |||||||
Zürich | Canton of Zürich | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1986 Zürich shooting A man killed four colleagues and wounded a fifth at his workplace.[12] The perpetrator was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was paroled on good behavior after serving 14 years in 2000.[13] He died in 2015 in a bicycle accident.[14] | |||||||
Zürich | Canton of Thurgau, Canton of Zürich | 6 | 4 | 10 | A man killed his family before traveling to Zürich and shooting six people, two fatally. He fled the scene and later killed himself.[15] [16] | |||||||
Val-d'Illiez | Canton of Valais | 6 | 0 | 6 | A 42-year-old man shot to death all five members of his family, before killing himself in an Alpine cottage.[17] [18] | |||||||
Lugano District | Republic and Canton of Ticino | 6 | 6 | 12 | Rivera massacre A man opened fire at multiple homes, killing six and wounding six before being arrested. | |||||||
Cheiry, Salvan | Canton of Freiburg, Canton of Valais | 48 | Two cult mass murder-suicides related to the Order of the Solar Temple left forty-eight people dead.[19] | |||||||||
Zug | Canton of Zug | 15 | 18 | 33 | Zug massacre People shot in the parliament of the Canton of Zug. The perpetrator later killed himself. | |||||||
Escholzmatt | Canton of Lucerne | 5 | 0 | 5 | A man shot and killed four family members with a pistol, before committing suicide.[20] | |||||||
Menznau | Canton of Lucerne | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2013 Menznau shooting A man opened fire at his workplace, killing four people and wounding five before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. | |||||||
Würenlingen | Canton of Aargau | 5 | 0 | 5 | Four people killed before the perpetrator shot himself in a domestic incident.[21] | |||||||
Rupperswil | Canton of Aargau | 4 | 0 | 4 | Rupperswil murder case A man murdered four people with a knife. | |||||||
Yverdon-les-Bains | Canton of Vaud | 5 | 0 | 5 | Police suspect that a man shot and killed his wife and three daughters before committing suicide.[22] |