Montenegro in shock as children killed in second tiny mountain town mass shooting
Montenegro in shock as children killed in second tiny mountain town mass shooting
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In 2022 a gunman in the same town killed 10 people including two children, before he was shot dead. A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before killing himself early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the tiny Balkan nation’s worst mass killings.
![[A police member stands on a checkpoint near where a gunman opened fire at a restaurant and killed several people in Cetinje, Montenegro, January 1, 2025.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/02/10/SEI234728814.jpg)
The attacker, named by police as 45-year-old Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, initially killed four people when he opened fire after a brawl at a restaurant in Cetinje on Wednesday afternoon. He then shot dead eight people, including two children, at three other locations, prosecutor Andrijana Nastic said.
Martinovic was cornered by officers near his home in the town and tried to kill himself, then died of his injuries on the way to hospital in the early hours of Thursday, Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said. “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.
The incident is the second shooting in three years in the same town 38 km (24 miles) west of the capital Podgorica. In 2022 a gunman killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot dead. According to the latest census the town has a population of roughly 12,500.
Map of Cetinje:. Police said Martinovic had been drinking heavily and had a history of illegal weapons possession. After an altercation with patrons in the restaurant he went home, took a weapon, returned to the restaurant and started shooting, police said.
