Investigators stand by the alleged body of the gunman (down R) who armed with a shotgun opened fire on a street on August 30, 2010 in the Bratislava suburb of Devinska Nova Ves, killing six people and injuring 14, according to emergency services. The gunman aged around 50 shot himself following the rampage.
Seven people were killed in Slovakia yesterday after a gunman went on the rampage in the country's capital before killing himself.
Among the dead were at least five members of a Roma family who lived in the Bratislava apartment block where the man began the attack, the country's interior minister Daniel Lipsic said.
The gunman, who had not been officially named last night, wounded a further 15 people, including a three-year-old boy, in the shooting yesterday morning. Police are investigating possible motives for the attack.
The man, armed with a machine gun and two pistols, opened fire in a brown-brick high-rise apartment building in Devinska Nova Ves, a rundown borough of Slovakia's capital.
Five of those killed – four women and a man – lived in an apartment in the building, according to the interior minister. A sixth man shot and killed outside the building was "probably" from the same family, he added.
Police reached the scene as the attacker, said to be around 50 years old, left the apartment block. As the man left the building he fired at people in the area, wounding 15 including a policeman and three-old-boy who was shot in the ear.
Emergency crews blocked off the scene of the attack, which is close to a kindergarten and a supermarket. Police said the gunman killed himself after being surrounded by officers.
"He was alone. He fired at everything that moved during his escape bid, the policemen surrounded him … they made it impossible for him to escape," police chief Jaroslav Spisiak told reporters.
The integration of Roma immigrants is a contentious issue in many European countries, with Amnesty International accusing the EU of having "turned a blind eye" to their plight just last month.
"So far we don't know the motive … so I will not speculate whether it did or did not have [a] racial motive," Lipsic told reporters. "I doubt it, but the investigation is ongoing."
The Slovak news agency TASR, referencing a police statement, identified the gunman late Monday as a 48-year-old local man. Without citing a source, TASR also reported that the man died from a gunshot to his head.
The three-year-old boy, who was shot while travelling in a car, was only slightly hurt and released after treatment, said Daniel Zitnan of Bratislava's children's hospital. Renata Vandriakova, in charge of Bratislava's response to health emergencies, said one of the 15 wounded had to be operated on and was in critical condition.
