BRATISLAVA – A gunman shot dead six members of a Roma family and another woman in the Slovak capital Bratislava yesterday before killing himself, according to government officials.
Fourteen more people were wounded in a gun battle with police following the murders, including one officer who was shot in the head.
The motive of the gunman, who was a Slovak aged about 50, and his identity were still being investigated, police chief Jaroslav Spisiak said. “He was alone. He fired at everything that moved during his escape bid. The policemen surrounded him . . . they made it impossible for him to escape.”
Interior minister Daniel Lipsic said six of the victims were members of the mostly poor Roma minority, whose integration into society has been a long-running issue in Slovakia.
“It was a family of Roma origin. We do not know the motive yet, I do not want to speculate if it was or was not a racist motive.”
There have been disputes and minor clashes in Slovakia between Roma and the majority population, especially in smaller towns, but no racist multiple murders. There are about 430,000 Roma among Slovakia’s population of 5.4 million.
The Devinska Nova Ves district of Bratislava, where the shooting took place, was sealed off by police.
Mr Spisiak said the man entered an apartment, armed with a sub- machine gun with eight magazines and two handguns, and shot dead four women and a man. He killed another relative in the doorway and a woman standing on a balcony nearby before police cornered him, and then he killed himself.
Dr Renata Vandariakova of the Bratislava University Hospital said the hospital was treating nine of the wounded, one of whom remained in critical condition.
Slovakia experienced several shooting incidents involving criminal gangs in the 1990s but has had no large-scale shootings in recent years. – (Reuters)