At least six people have been killed after a gunman opened fire at a care home in Croatia, sparking calls for tighter gun controls in the Balkan country.
Five people, including a staff member, were killed at the house in the eastern town of Daruvar, while another person later died in hospital.
Police said several people were also injured and four people remain in critical condition.
According to Croatian media, the suspect fled the scene after the attack and was later arrested at a cafe, where he was found carrying an unregistered weapon.
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said he was shocked by the “unprecedented, barbaric” mass shooting and called for gun ownership regulations to be “even stricter”.
“This is a terrible warning and a final appeal to all competent institutions to do more to prevent violence in society,” President Milanovic wrote in a social media post.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called it a “brutal attack” and expressed condolences to those affected.
Croatian authorities have not given a motive for the massacre.
Marin Piletic, Croatia’s Minister of Labor, Pensions, Family and Social Policy, said the suspect’s mother had been a resident at the nursing home for 10 years.
Unconfirmed local media reports said the man was a war veteran.
According to Croatian national police chief Nikola Milina, he also has previous convictions for public order disturbance and domestic violence.
The murder shocked the 7,000 residents of the quiet spa town of Daruvar.
“I find it hard to understand that this could happen in our town, in our country,” mayor Damir Lnenicek told Croatian television station N1.
There were about 20 people living in the nursing home at the time of the shooting, according to Mr. Lnenicek.
Mass shootings in Croatia are very rare.
Monday’s massacre was one of the worst in the country’s history since it declared independence in 1991.
According to the 2017 Small Arms Survey, Croatia has 13.2 guns per 100 people, ranking 25th in Europe in terms of gun ownership.
Last year, two mass shootings in neighboring Serbia left more than 18 people dead and led many Serbs to surrender thousands of registered and unregistered weapons as part of a government amnesty.
