By Stevo Vasiljevic
CETINJE, Montenegro (Reuters) – A gunman killed at least 10 people in a shooting in a small town in Montenegro on Wednesday, police said, one of the deadliest in the Balkans.
A 45-year-old man, identified by the police as Aleksandar Martinovic, was on the run after opening fire at a restaurant in the town of Cetinje where he killed four people.
The shooter went to three other locations, shooting a family member, two children and three other people, police said. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries.
The suspect, who media reports say has a history of illegal weapons possession, was in the area around Cetinje, a small valley town surrounded by rugged hills about 38 kilometers (23.6 miles) west of the Montenegrin town of Podgorica.
A journalist with state-run broadcaster RTCG said police had deployed a high-resolution drone to search for the suspect. Special police and anti-terrorist units were also searching for the suspect in the hills.
“The perimeter is narrow. … We will do everything possible to put this person under control and arrest him,” said police director Lazar Scepanovic.
He said the suspect was believed to have been drinking heavily before he was shot. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said there had been a dispute in which shots had been fired.
Police said the shooting was not believed to be related to organized crime.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture. In 2022, in Cetinje, 11 people, including two children and a gun, were killed in a massive attack.
Wednesday's incident shocked the country of 605,000 people. Spajic called the shooting a “terrible tragedy” and declared three days of national mourning.
Montenegro's president, Jakov Milatovic, said he was “shocked” by the attack. “We pray and hope that the injured will recover,” Milatovic said in a statement.
Cetinje was eerily quiet with its snow-covered streets deserted except for law enforcement. Police urged people to stay indoors and video showed police cordoning off a neighborhood that was decorated with holiday lights.
Despite strict gun laws, the Western Balkans, made up of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, are still heavily armed. Most date back to the bloody wars of the 1990s, but some date back to the First World War.
Spajic said authorities will consider ways to tighten the rules on gun ownership and possession, including a complete ban on firearms.