A gunman opened fire at a nursing home in Croatia on Monday, killing six people and injuring six others, according to authorities and media reports.
State broadcaster HRT reported that the unidentified gunman entered the nursing home in Daruvar, located 129 kilometers east of Zagreb, and began shooting.
Croatia’s police chief, Nikola Milina, said five people died immediately, while one more person died in a hospital. The suspect fled the scene, but the police soon caught him in a cafe near the facility in the town of Daruvar, he said.
The victims were five residents of the care home and one employee, Milina said.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic later confirmed the death toll and called for a thorough investigation by authorities while expressing condolences to the victims’ families.
“We are shocked,” Plenkovic told reporters in the town of Split. “This is really a monstrous act of the murder of a group of people, of the mother and other very old people who happened to be there. … We condemn this crime.”
Police were alerted to the incident at 10:10 a.m. and confirmed that the suspect had entered the nursing home and used a firearm.
The suspect is currently under police supervision, according to a statement from the regional police office.
“It’s hard for me to understand that this can happen in our town, country,” Daruvar Mayor Damir Lnenicek told N1 regional broadcaster.
According to Lnenicek, approximately 20 people were residing in the nursing home at the time of the shooting.
The Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list described the alleged shooter as a “retired military police officer” who killed his mother along with other residents and staff.
N1 regional television reported that the shooter was born in 1973, was a former fighter in the 1991-1995 war in Croatia and was a relative of one of the nursing home residents.
Police have not yet disclosed a motive.
Some information from this report comes from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
