In short:
A man is in police custody after allegedly attacking an aged care facility in Croatia with a gun, shooting dead five people.
Croatia’s president called the shooting a “frightening warning” and said it should spur the country’s “competent institutions” to do more to prevent violence in society.
What’s next?
Police are yet to determine a motive for the shooting, however initial media reports said the gunman was a relative of one of the home’s residents.
An armed man entered an aged care facility in central Croatia on Monday and opened fire, killing five people and wounding several others, authorities and media reports said.
Croatia’s Index news site said five people died immediately, while others were still receiving medical assistance.
The man fled the scene, but the police soon caught him in a café near the facility in the town of Daruvar, Index reported.
“We are appalled by the murder of five people in the Home for the Elderly in Daruvar,” Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, wrote on X.
“We express our condolences to the families of the victims and hope for the recovery of the wounded.”
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said he was “shocked” by “the savage, unprecedented crime”.
“It is a frightening warning and a last call to all competent institutions to do more to prevent violence in society, including even more rigorous control of gun ownership,” he said.
Police said they received reports shortly after 10am that a man had shot and killed several people at the aged care home.
The man is now “under police supervision”, they added.
Quiet town left stunned and grieving
The attack has left Daruvar, a quiet spa town with a population of just 8,500, stunned and grieving.
The town’s mayor, Damir Lnenicek, told European cable news channel N1 that everyone was shocked by the murder.
“What is the cause, the trigger, it is difficult to say; that will be determined by the investigation,” Mr Lnenicek said.
Authorities say they are yet to determine the motive behind the attack.
Initial media reports stated the shooter was a relative of one of the nursing home’s residents and was a veteran of the 1991-95 Croatian War of Independence, though this could not be independently verified.
AP
