A gunman killed two people and wounded a third in the Swiss alpine town of Sion on Monday morning, and a suspect was later arrested, police said.

Several shots were fired in two parts of the town, police in the southwestern Valais canton said.

The victims were a 34-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man who lived in the area, police added.

After the shooting, officers cordoned off the scene and set up a checkpoint, stopping and searching cars on the main road out of the canton.

Switzerland has a high rate of gun ownership. The Swiss-based Small Arms Survey research group estimates that in a country of around 9 million people, civilians own about 2.3 million firearms.