BERLIN - A Swiss athlete was one of the victims of a shooting at a wood-processing company in central Switzerland, police said Thursday, as it emerged that the assailant was originally from Kosovo.
Benno Studer, 26, was among the three people who died in the Wednesday shooting in the small town of Menznau, according to Lucerne police spokesman Urs Wigger. The 42-year-old assailant was also among the dead, and seven other people were wounded.
Studer was a wrestler in the traditional sport of Schwingen, also known as Swiss wrestling — considered one of the country's national sports.
Wigger said he could not confirm media reports that the shooter, whose full name was not released, killed himself .
In Kosovo, authorities said the attacker was born there and that Swiss officials had been in touch with them about the case.
A Kosovo government official close to the contacts with Swiss authorities identified the shooter as Viktor Berisha, an ethnic Albanian. The Kosovo official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details of the case since the shooter was a Swiss citizen.
In Berisha's home village of Nec, relatives began pouring into the family house late Wednesday to express condolences. Viktor's father, Mark declined to meet with reporters because he was shocked by the news, said a distant cousin, Pal Binishi.
The Nec area borders Albania and is home to most of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians who are Roman Catholic.
