Workers carry a body after a gunman opened fire and killed several people in a restaurant in Cetinje, Montenegro, on January 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

At least 10 people, including two children, were killed on Wednesday (January 1, 2025) by a gunman who launched a shooting spree in a restaurant near the southern Montenegro city of Cetinje that spanned several locations, authorities said.

Police launched an hours-long manhunt for the suspect, who “shot himself in the head” when he was surrounded, police chief Lazar Scepanovic told reporters.

“An attempt was made to transport him to a clinical centre but he succumbed to his injuries in the meantime,” Mr. Scepanovic said.

In his killing spree, which started around 5.30 p.m. local time (16.30 GMT) in Bajice village near Cetinje, the 45-year-old gunned down at least 10 people, two of whom were aged 10 and 13, according to the police.

Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said he had also “killed members of his own family”.

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

Four people were also seriously wounded and transported to a hospital in the capital Podgorica, though police chief Mr. Scepanovic later said their lives were “no longer in danger”.

Mr. Scepanovic said the suspect “had consumed alcoholic beverages all day” before the incident between him and another restaurant guest.

He then “went home, took a weapon, used firearms and killed four people at one location”, and then went to three other places.

The government declared three days of national mourning from Thursday.

An earlier police statement had identified the shooter as “A.M., 45”. Ruling out a “showdown between organised criminal groups”, the police also said the firearms used were illegal.

‘Shocked and shaken’

Prime Minister Spajic told state broadcaster RTCG the incident was a “restaurant fight” gone wrong and that he would be tightening the country’s criteria for firearms possession.

“It was simply a restaurant fight where guns were drawn and everything went in a different direction in which it should not have gone,” he said.

“This is a tragedy after which we must ask ourselves who should be allowed to possess firearms in Montenegro,” said Mr. Spajic.

Police had sealed off the area surrounding the restaurant, said an AFP photographer. Dozens of officers, police vehicles and at least one ambulance were at the scene.

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

“Our thoughts tonight are with the families who lost their loved ones and the citizens of Cetinje,” Milatovic said on social media platform X.

“The whole of Montenegro feels and shares your pain. We pray and hope for the recovery of all the wounded.”

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 more than 620,000 people.

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

Organised crime and corruption have remained two major issues plaguing Montenegro, which authorities have pledged to tackle under pressure from the European Union that the tiny nation aspires to join.

Podgorica, Montenegro:

A gunman who killed at least 10 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro died from self-inflicted injuries on Thursday after attempting suicide, the country’s interior minister, Danilo Saranovic, said. The gunman, identified by police as Aleksandar Martinovic, 45, attempted suicide near his home in the town of Cetinje after being cornered by police.

“When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot, but during the transport to hospital,” Saranovic told Montenegro’s state broadcaster, RTCG.

Saranovic provided no details on the attempted suicide.

Martinovic was on the run after opening fire on Wednesday afternoon at a restaurant in Cetinje, a small town located 38 km (23.6 miles) west of Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, where he killed four people.

The shooter then moved on to three other locations, killing at least six more people, including two children, police said. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries.

Police said Martinovic had a history of illegal weapons possession.

Late on Wednesday, police director Lazar Scepanovic said the suspect was thought to have been drinking heavily before the shooting. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said there had been a brawl before shots were fired.

Police said the shooting was not thought to be connected to organised crime.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture. In 2022, also in Cetinje, 11 people, including two children and a gunman, were killed in a mass attack.

Wednesday’s incident shocked the country of 605,000 people. Spajic called the rampage a “terrible tragedy” and declared three days of national mourning. President Jakov Milatovic said he was “horrified” by the attack.

Despite strict gun laws, the Western Balkans composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, remain awash with weapons. Most are from the bloody wars in the 1990s, but some date back even to World War One.

Spajic said authorities would consider tightening criteria for owning and carrying firearms, including the possibility of a complete ban on weapons.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)