Gunman kills seven in Slovakia attack

A gunman went on a rampage in Slovakia’s capital today, killing seven people and wounding 15, before committing suicide, officials said.

Five of the dead were members of a Roma family who lived in an apartment where the man began his attack with a machine gun and two pistols, said interior minister Dusan Lipsic.

Roma gypsies often face discrimination in eastern Europe, but Mr Lipsic and police chief Jaroslav Spisiak both said the unidentified gunman’s motive was not known.

Another man shot and killed outside the building was “probably” a member of the same family, Mr Lipsic said.

“So far we don’t know the motive ... so I will not speculate whether it did or did not have a racial motive,” he said. “I doubt it, but of course the investigation is ongoing.”

The shooting took place in the run-down Devinska Nova Ves neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Slovak capital which is surrounded by fields and industrial areas.

The five Roma who died in the apartment – four women and a man – lived in a brown high-rise building, Mr Spisiak said.

Police rushed to the scene as the attacker, aged about 50, was leaving the building, and he fired indiscriminately at people in the area, wounding 15, including a policeman and a three-year-old boy who was shot in the ear, Mr Lipsic said.

The seventh fatality was a woman who was shot in the area as she walked to the balcony of her apartment when she heard the gunfire, he added.

Daniel Zitnan of Bratislava’s Children’s Hospital said the three-year-old boy was only slightly hurt and was released. During the attack, he was in a car that was hit by bullets, Mr Zitnan said.

Renata Vandriakova, who heads the accident and emergency department of one Bratislava’s hospitals and oversees the city’s response to health emergencies, said one of the 15 wounded had to be operated on and was in critical condition.

Emergency crews blocked off the scene of the attack, which also includes a nursery and a supermarket.