Eight people have died as a result of a shooting spree that took place in Devínska Nová Ves, a suburban district of Bratislava, on Monday morning, August 30. A gunman, aged around 50, killed seven people and wounded 15 before shooting himself after being cornered by the police.
The man, who was using an vz.58 assault rifle that he illegally possessed, was carrying another two other guns and a lot of ammunition, Police Corps President Jaroslav Spisiak told TASR newswire.
The shooting spree began about ten in the morning and more than twenty persons were shot, including a three-year-old child whose condition is now stable. The injured persons with gunshot wounds were taken to four Bratislava hospitals and one was treated on site. Others were driven by eight ambulances that kept transporting people between the shooting site and hospitals in Bratislava.
While the shooting was ongoing, the municipal office warned people through the local public radio system not to move near windows and not to go near three streets: Ján Smrek, Pavol Horov, and Štefan Králik.
Police Corps President Jaroslav Spišiak told the SITA newswire that the first police patrols arrived within two minutes after the shooting was reported and they met the perpetrator coming out of the building. When the man encountered the police he started shooting randomly at passersby and also shot one police officer in the head.
“During his escape, he shot at everything around him that moved,” Spišiak said.
The police subsequently found five dead, four women and one man – all relatives – in a flat in the building; a sixth victim was found at the front door of the building.
