Shooting in Montenegro: 12 dead, including two children

Twelve people, including two children, were killed by an armed man who started a shooting in a restaurant in southern Montenegro, the prosecutor said this Thursday, January 2. “Twelve people were killed, including two children”prosecutor Andrijana Nastic told the media, the previous report showing at least ten deaths.

The armed and drunk man killed these twelve people after an altercation in a restaurant on Wednesday in southern Montenegro, before killing himself by shooting himself in the head while he was surrounded by police.

The drama began around 4:30 p.m. in a restaurant in the village of Bajice, near the town of Cetinje. The suspect “after arguing with a customer with whom he had spent a large part of the day, and having drunk large quantities of alcohol, returned home, took a gun and killed four people”said police chief Lazar Scepanovic.

National mourning

The 45-year-old killer then went to three other locations where he killed six more people, including a member of his own family, the restaurant owner and his two children, aged 10 and 13. . “He tried to kill four other people whose lives are no longer in danger”said Lazar Scepanovic during a press briefing.

After several hours of tracking by the police and the army, the shooter was located and surrounded. When the officers asked him “to put down his weapon, he shot himself in the head”said Lazar Scepanovic. “We tried to transport him to a hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries”he clarified.

In a speech in the evening, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic announced a three-day national mourning, from Thursday to Saturday inclusive. Evoking “a fight in a restaurant, during which weapons were drawn, and which escalated”Milojko Spajic also announced new restrictions to come on the possession of firearms. “This tragedy raises the question of who can have weapons in Montenegro”he added.

On site, near the traditional restaurant in which the tragedy took place, the police prevented anyone from approaching in the evening. Dozens of men, police vehicles and at least one ambulance were visible behind the barriers, noted an AFP journalist. The police assured that this shooting was not “not the result of a confrontation between groups belonging to organized crime”.

According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, around 245,000 firearms are in circulation in Montenegro, for a population of 630,000 inhabitants. “Our thoughts this evening are with the families who have lost loved ones and with the residents of Cetinje. All of Montenegro feels and shares your pain. We pray for the recovery of all the injured”wrote the country’s president, Jakov Milatovic, on X.