Cetinje, Montenegro—A man was shot dead by a passerby on Friday after a shooting spree killed 10 people, including two children, in the streets of this western Montenegro city, officials said.
Montenegro Police Chief Zoran Burjanin said in a video statement shared with the media that the attacker was a 34-year-old man identified only by the initials VB.
According to Burjanin, the man first used a hunting rifle to shoot dead two children, ages 8 and 11, and their mother, who were residents of the attacker’s house in the Medvina district of Cetinje.
The gunmen then took to the streets and randomly shot 13 more people, seven of whom died, the chief said.
“At the moment, it is not clear why VB began to commit this atrocity,” said Burjanin.
Andriana Nastic, the prosecutor coordinating the crime scene investigation, told journalists the shooter was killed by a passerby and a police officer was among the injured. It said one person died at the scene and two died in hospital where they underwent surgery.
Cetinje, the former seat of the royal government of Montenegro, lies 36 kilometers (22 miles) west of Podglica, the current capital of the small Balkan country.
Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said on his Telegram channel that the incident was an “unprecedented tragedy” and urged the public to “think of the families, relatives and friends of the innocent victims and all people in Cetinje”. did.
President Milo Čukanovic said on Twitter that he was “deeply touched by the news of the terrible tragedy” in Cetinje and called for “solidarity” with families who lost loved ones in the incident.
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