Five people have been found dead after a shooting in a town in northern Switzerland, including the suspected gunman, police said today.

Residents heard shots in the town of Wuerenlingen shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, police said. Officers then found five bodies in a quiet residential neighbourhood.

The shooting appears to have been a "relationship crime," or the result of domestic dispute, Aargau canton (state) police chief Michael Leupold said at a news conference. Police "were able to rule out a terrorist background" or any other danger, he added.

The suspected gunman first killed three people — a 58-year-old man, a 57-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man — in a house, criminal police official Markus Gisin said. He is then believed to have killed a 46-year-old neighbor outside the house before shooting himself.

The victims in the house were the parents-in-law and brother-in-law of the suspected gunman, a 36-year-old who lived in Schwyz canton (state), south ofZurich. All were Swiss nationals.

The gunman's wife and three children weren't targeted in the shooting.

Wuerenlingen is a town of some 4,500 people northwest of Zurich, near the German border.