Gunman kills 10 people in mass shooting in small Montenegro town

A gunman has killed at least 10 people in a rampage on a small town in Montenegro, police say, one of the tiny Balkan nation's worst mass killings.

A 45-year-old man, identified by police as Aleksandar Martinovic, died from injuries on Thursday after attempting suicide following the shootings, the country's interior minister Danilo Saranovic said.

Martinovic opened fire at a restaurant in the town of Cetinje on Wednesday, where he killed four people.

The shooter moved on to three other locations, gunning down a family member, two children and three other people, police said, with four more people suffering life-threatening injuries.

Media reports said the suspect had a history of illegal weapons possession.

Police had earlier deployed special teams and anti-terrorism units to find the gunman around Cetinje, a small valley town surrounded by rugged hills about 38 kilometres west of the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.

Police director Lazar Scepanovic said the suspect was thought to have been drinking heavily before the shooting.

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said there had been a brawl in which pistols were fired.

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Authorities say the truck driver, who killed 10 people and injured dozens more when he tried to "run over as many people as he possibly could", had an ISIS flag attached to his truck.

Police said the shooting was not thought to be connected to organised crime.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture.

In 2022, also in Cetinje, 11 people, including two children and a gunman, were killed in a mass attack.

Mr Spajic called the shootings a "terrible tragedy" and declared three days of national mourning in the country of 605,000 people.

Montenegro's president, Jakov Milatovic, said he was "horrified" by the attack.

Cetinje was eerily quiet following the shootings, with its snow-covered streets empty except for law enforcement.

Police urged people to remain inside their homes and video showed police officers cordoning off a neighbourhood where lamp posts were adorned with festive lights.

Despite strict gun laws, the Western Balkans, composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, remain awash with weapons.

Most are from the bloody wars in the 1990s, but some date back even to World War I.

Mr Spajic said authorities would consider tightening criteria for owning and carrying firearms, including the possibility of a complete ban on weapons.