The suspect, a war veteran, enters a private nursing home in Daruvar, killing six people in a rare case of armed violence in the Balkan country.
A gunman entered a private nursing home in northwestern Croatia and shot dead five people, including his mother, and injured six others, a government minister said.
One of the people injured on Monday later died in hospital, bringing the death toll to six, while four remained in critical condition, Marin Piletic, minister of Labor, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, told reporters.
One of the victims was an employee at a nursing home, the minister said.
“According to the information we have, the killer’s mother had been in the nursing home for 10 years,” Piletic said.
Authorities gave no motive for the attack.
Croatian media reported that the shooter, born in 1973, is a war veteran. The suspect fled the scene, but police soon arrested him in a cafe near the nursing home in Daruvar, a spa town in the municipality of Slavonia with a population of 8,500.
Police said they were informed of the incident at 10:10 am (8:10 GMT) and confirmed that the suspect had entered the nursing home and used a firearm.
The suspect is “under police supervision”, according to a statement from the Regional Police Station.
According to police, the attacker used an unregistered weapon. There are many weapons stored in private homes in Croatia after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the wars that followed.
The attack left the peaceful town stunned and in mourning. Daruvar Mayor Damir Lnenicek told N1 that everyone was in a state of shock.
“What the cause, the trigger, is is difficult to say. This will be determined by the investigation,” said Lnenicek, adding that the tragedy occurred in a private house where around 20 people live.
President Zoran Milanovic said he was “shocked” by the “savage and unprecedented crime”.
“It is a chilling warning and a final call to all relevant institutions to do more to prevent violence in society, including even stricter control of gun ownership,” he said.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic condemned the crime.
“This is truly a monstrous act of murder of a group of people, the mother and other very elderly people who happened to be there,” he said.
Shootings in Croatia are rare and Monday’s incident is among the worst in Croatia’s history since it declared independence in 1991.
Last year, neighboring Serbia was rocked by back-to-back mass shootings, including at a school in the capital, Belgrade, in which 10 people were killed.
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