A man suspected of having a gun after a riot in Cetinje shot himself in the head after being surrounded by police.
Two children were among at least 10 people killed in a mass shooting that began at a restaurant in the small town of Cetinje in Montenegro and continued at three different locations, authorities said.
A local man suspected of carrying out the shooting, identified by police as 45-year-old Aleksandar Martinovic, died Thursday morning of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and died of his injuries on the way to hospital.
The police had surrounded the man near his house in Cetinje. When the police ordered him to “put down his weapon, he shot himself in the head”, the country's police chief, Lazar Scepanovic, told reporters.
“Attempts were made to take him to the hospital, but he is injured right now,” he said.
In a televised statement confirming the death of the suspected gunman, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said the mass killings had “overshadowed our dark country”.
“This senselessness has caused untold grief and sorrow in each of us. There are no words of comfort,” Spajic said.
Montenegro's national security council will now consider “all options” after the attack, including a total ban on weapons, the prime minister said, adding that the country will observe three days of mourning.
Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic told reporters that the two youths killed in the attack, which began on Wednesday night, were the children of the owner of the restaurant when the shooting began. The owner was also killed, he said.
The shooter “killed his relatives,” the minister said, adding that the suspect was suspected to have been drinking heavily before the incident.
Four people seriously injured in the attack are said to be fighting for their lives at a hospital in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.
The suspect, who the media said had a history of illegal possession of weapons and received a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behavior, fled after the shootout and was in Cetinje, a small valley town surrounded by mountains 38km (23.6 miles) away. ) west of Podgorica.
All roads into and out of the town were closed as police swarmed the streets before surrounding the suspect near his home.
The shooting was the second shooting in the past three years in Cetinje, Montenegro's historic capital. The attacker also killed 10 people, including two children, in August 2022 before being shot and killed by a bystander, the Associated Press reported.
Montenegro, with a population of over 620,000, is known for its gun culture and many people are armed.
Violence and corruption are two of the biggest problems plaguing Montenegro, which the authorities have promised to tackle under pressure from the European Union, which the small country wants to join.