ANKARA

At least nine people, including juveniles, were injured in a shooting at an Airbnb rental house party in Bath Township near Akron city in the US state of Ohio, media reports said on Sunday.

The incident prompted renewed scrutiny of party-related safety concerns at short-term rental properties, according to ABC News.

Airbnb condemned the violence in a statement to ABC News, saying it was “heartbroken by this senseless act of gun violence.”

“Unauthorized and disruptive gatherings are strictly prohibited on Airbnb,” the company said, adding that its safety team “acted immediately to remove the account of the individual who deliberately broke those rules by booking this stay.”

The company also noted that its law enforcement response team is working closely with Bath Township Police Chief Michael Sinopoli to support the investigation.

Sunday’s shooting marks the second such incident at an Airbnb rental in Bath Township since July 2017, when a drive-by shooting during a party left one man injured, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

The incident occurred just days after Airbnb rolled out new artificial intelligence-powered “anti-party” technology in the US and Canada to prevent high-risk gatherings, particularly during Halloween week.

The machine-learning system considers factors such as reservation length, property type, booking timing, and distance from the guest’s home to assess the likelihood of unauthorized parties.

Last year, Airbnb’s Halloween party protections blocked 38,000 booking attempts in the US and 6,300 in Canada.

The company permanently banned all parties globally in 2022 following multiple shooting incidents.

“Strong policies must be complemented by strong enforcement,” Airbnb said, emphasizing its continued efforts to prevent such gatherings.