Croatia shocked as nursing home shooting kills six

Daruvar: Croatia was in a state of shock on Monday after a gunman opened fire in a nursing home, killing at least six people in a rare instance of gun violence in the Balkan country.

Five residents and one employee were dead after the gunman entered the private nursing home in the eastern town of Daruvar and went on a killing spree, according to police.

The gunman then fled the scene and was later arrested at a cafe, where he was carrying unregistered firearms.

The man had a previous police record for disturbing public order and domestic abuse, said Croatian national police chief Nikola Milina.

Officials first reported that five people had been killed during the shooting, but Milina said a sixth victim died after being transported to a hospital.

"We are appalled by this heinous crime," Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told reporters.

"It is a monstrous act, the murder of several people, the mother, people around 90 years of age."

Police have not confirmed if the gunman's mother was among the victims, as the prime minister suggested.

In the shooting's wake, police sealed off the private nursing home located along a quiet street in Daruvar, where a small crowd gathered and watched as a forensics team entered the residence.

Police said they were informed of the incident at 10:10 am local time (0810 GMT), and confirmed the suspect had entered the nursing home and used a firearm.

Local media reports later described the suspected shooter as a retired military police officer who had fought in Croatia's war of independence during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995.

'A terrifying warning'

"I heard something that sounded like gunshots, but I wasn't sure", Antonio Demeter, an employee of the bookstore just across from the home, told AFP.

Then "two employees of the home ran into the bookstore and asked me for help. I called the police and ambulance.

"I was stacking the medicines and then I heard gunshots," a visibly shocked employee told state-run HRT television.

"We hid under a bed, the boss escaped through the window and then (we fled) through the window to the bookstore", the woman said through tears while sitting in a car.

As news of the shooting spread, shock rippled through Daruvar - a quiet town of some 7,000 - that has long been a popular spa destination thanks to the area's thermal springs.

"It's hard for me to understand that this can happen in our town, country," mayor Damir Lnenicek told N1 regional broadcaster.

Around 20 people lived in the nursing home at the time of the shooting, according to the mayor.

"What is the trigger? It's difficult to say, it will be determined by the investigation" Lnenicek added.

Following the shooting, Croatia's President Zoran Milanovic took to social media where he called the shooting "savage".

"It is a terrifying warning and a last call to all competent institutions to do more to prevent violence in society, including even more rigorous control of arms ownership," said the president.

Shootings in Croatia are rare, with Monday's incident among the worst in Croatia's history since the declared independence in 1991.

Last year in neighbouring Serbia, the country was rocked by back-to-back mass shootings, including a massacre at a school in the capital in Belgrade in which 10 people were killed.