Montenegro mourns after gunman kills 12

Montenegro began three days of national mourning Thursday after a gunman went on a rampage after opening fire at a village restaurant, killing 12 people including two children.

"Twelve people were killed, of whom two were children," prosecutor Andrijana Nastic told reporters in the southern town of Cetinje, raising the previous toll of at least 10 from Wednesday's attack.

The 45-year-old gunman died after shooting himself in the head when he was surrounded after an hours-long manhunt, police said early Thursday.

The killing spree started around 5:30 pm (1630 GMT) in Bajice, a village near Cetinje, according to police.

The victims were killed at five different locations, with the first four in the restaurant, the prosecutor said.

Police said the two killed children were aged 10 and 13.

Four people were also seriously injured and transported to a hospital in the capital, Podgorica.

On Thursday morning, three remained in critical condition including one, who sustained a head injury, in extremely critical condition, hospital head Aleksandar Radovic told reporters.

The streets of Cetinje and Bajice were deserted on Thursday morning, and a police patrol was stationed in front of the gunman's house at the entry to the village, according to an AFP photographer.

- 'Terrible tragedy' -

"A terrible tragedy has struck all of us in Cetinje, in the village of Bajice," Prime Minister Milojko Spajic told state broadcaster RTCG.

Police chief Lazar Scepanovic said the suspect "had consumed alcoholic beverages all day" before an altercation between him and another restaurant guest.

He then went home, where he took a weapon and then returned to kill four people at the restaurant before moving on to the other locations, Scepanovic said.

Police earlier had ruled out any "showdown between organized criminal groups", adding that the firearm was owned illegally.

- 'Shocked and shaken' -

Spajic said that the shootings were a "restaurant fight" gone wrong and that he would be tightening the country's criteria for firearms possession.

"This is a tragedy after which we must ask ourselves who should be allowed to possess firearms in Montenegro," he said.

The country's National Security Council is to meet on Friday to review "key challenges in the detection and seizure of illegal weapons" as well as the recruitment of additional police officers, a government statement said.

Spajic had posted earlier on X that "all options, including a complete ban on the possession of weapons", would be considered.

President Jakov Milatovic said he was "shocked and shaken by this tragedy that has cast a shadow over our Cetinje".

According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, there are approximately 245,000 firearms in circulation in Montenegro.

But mass shootings are rare in the Balkan nation of just over 620,000 people.

In 2022, a man murdered 10 Cetinje residents, including two children, in broad daylight before being killed, in one of the deadliest such incidents to rock the country.

Cetinje, with the population of around 13,000 people, is the site of the former royal capital and sits in a mountainous valley that has largely stagnated economically.

The area and its surroundings are strongholds of organized criminal groups, and clashes erupt sporadically between rival mafia clans.

In June, two people were killed in a blast at a Cetinje sports centre, an attack linked to organized crime.

Organized crime and corruption remain two major issues plaguing Montenegro that authorities have pledged to tackle in its bid to join the European Union.

© Agence France-Presse