PRAGUE — A gunman opened fire inside a small-town restaurant in eastern Czech Republic on Tuesday, killing eight people and seriously wounding a waitress before he fatally shot himself, officials said. It was the worst shooting attack in the young country’s history.
The gunman was a local man about 60 years old, said Patrik Kuncar, mayor of the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod.
Czech public radio said the perpetrator called a local television station before the attack, complaining that police weren’t solving his problems and threatening that he would “take things into his hands.”
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, who arrived at the scene, said the man had a gun license. “It was not a terrorist attack,” he said.
The gunman was armed with two pistols and opened fire at the approaching police officers, Chovanec said.
The Czech Republic became an independent nation in 1993 after the split of Czechoslovakia.
The attack shocked the town of 17,000, which lies 185 miles southeast of Prague, the capital, and is home to a gun plant.
“Nobody believed anything like that could happen in such a small town,” Kuncar said. “I can hardly imagine what consequences it will have for the future life in this town.”
The victims have been identified and were all from the region, Chovanec said. The country’s chief police officer, Tomas Tuhy, said authorities wouldn’t reveal more information immediately because of the ongoing investigation.
