Written by Stevo Vasilyevich
Cetinje, Montenegro (Reuters) – A gunman went on a rampage in a small town in Montenegro on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people, police said, in one of the worst mass killings in the small Balkan nation. Ta.
The 45-year-old man, identified by police as Aleksandar Martinovic, was on the run after opening fire at a restaurant in the town of Cetinje, killing four people.
Police said the gunman moved to three more locations and shot and killed a family, two children and three other people. A further four people suffered serious, life-threatening injuries.
Media reports said the suspect, who had a history of illegally possessing weapons, was on the run around Cetinje, a small valley town surrounded by steep hills about 38 kilometers (23.6 miles) west of Montenegro’s capital Podgorica.
A reporter for state broadcaster RTCG said police had deployed a drone equipped with thermal vision to search for the suspect. Special police and anti-terrorist squads were also searching for the suspects in the hilly areas.
“The line is narrowing. … We will do everything to bring this person under control and arrest him,” said police chief Lazar Shepanovich.
He said the suspect appeared to have been drinking heavily before the shooting. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said there was a scuffle in which pistols were fired.
Police said the shooting was not believed to be connected to organized crime.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture. In 2022, a gang attack in Cetinje killed 11 people, including two children and a gunman.
Wednesday’s incident shocked the nation of 605,000 people. Spajic called the shooting a “terrible tragedy” and declared three days of national mourning.
Montenegrin President Yakov Milatovic said he was “horrified” by the attack. “We pray and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” Milatovic said in a statement.
Cetinje was eerily quiet, the snow-covered streets empty except for law enforcement. Police urged people to stay indoors and video showed officers cordoning off areas where lampposts were decorated with festive lights.
Despite strict gun controls, the Western Balkans – Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia – remains awash in weapons. Most are from the bloody wars of the 1990s, but some date back to World War I.
Spajic said authorities would consider tightening standards for owning and carrying firearms, including the possibility of a complete ban on weapons.
