MONTENEGRO was in a state of shock today after a gunman fatally shot 12 people, including two children, before killing himself.

At least four others were wounded in the shooting rampage in Cetinje on Wednesday that followed a bar fight, officials said. This was the western town’s second such incident in three years.

The shooter, identified as 45-year-old Aco Martinovic, killed the owner of the bar, the bar owner’s children and his own family members, officials said.

The attacker, who fled after the rampage, was later located and surrounded by police. He died after shooting himself in the head, Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said.

Residents of Cetinje, which is Montenegro’s historic capital, were left stunned and grief-stricken. Vanja Popovic, whose relatives are among the victims, said that “we are all in shock.”

“How can I feel after this?" he said. “No-one expected it. You can’t even ask anyone anything.”

The government has declared three days of national mourning, starting today, and all plans for New Year festivities have been cancelled throughout the country.

Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said that the government may try to impose a total ban on weapons “because we must ask ourselves after this who should be allowed to have guns in Montenegro.”

In August 2022, an attacker in Cetinje killed 10 people, including two children, before being shot dead by a passer-by.

Police have said that the suspect in Wednesday's shooting received a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behaviour and had appealed against his latest conviction for illegal weapons possession. Montenegrin media have reported that he was known for erratic and violent behaviour.

“Instead of holiday joy … we have been gripped by sadness over the loss of innocent lives,” President Jakov Milatovic wrote in a post on the X social media platform.