Thousands attend vigil in Podgorica for 12 victims of Cetinje shooting rampage

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - PODGORICA — Thousands of people have attended a candlelight vigil to remember the 12 victims of a mass shooting in Montenegro.

It happened on Wednesday in the central town of Cetinje when a man started a shooting rampage after a bar brawl, killing 12 and wounding at least four others.

Two children were among the victims and the man, named as 45-year-old Aco Martinović, died after shooting himself in the head.

This was the second such incident in the town in the past three years.

"I feel very bad. I can't believe that we failed so much as a society. We failed as people too. Why didn't they try to save him before? Now it's too late. It's just too late, I don't know what to say, it's very hard. It's very hard for our society, for all of us," said pensioner Mira Skoric who attended the vigil in the capital Podgorica.

Police Commissioner Lazar Šćepanović described the shooting as "one of the biggest tragedies in the history of Montenegro."

"Most of the victims were people he knew, his closest friends and relatives," including the shooter's sister, Šćepanović said.

"This criminal act wasn't planned or organised. It was unpredictable."

The government has declared three days of national mourning starting on Thursday and all planned New Year's festivities have been cancelled throughout the country.

Visiting Cetinje on Thursday, Prime Minister Milojko Spajić announced a tightening of rules on weapons possession and said the government is considering an outright ban.

"This is a real tragedy where we have to ask ourselves who can have weapons in Montenegro, both sporting and hunting, we understand all that, but the criteria must be tightened as much as possible," he said.

The small Adriatic Sea nation, which has a population of around 620,000 people, is known for its gun culture and many people traditionally have weapons.

In August 2022 in Cetinje, which is Montenegro's historic capital, an attacker killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot and killed by a passerby.

Police have said that the suspect in Wednesday's shooting received a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behaviour and had appealed his latest conviction for illegal weapons possession.

Montenegrin media have reported that he was known for erratic and violent behaviour.

"Instead of holiday joy...we have been gripped by sadness over the loss of innocent lives," Montenegro's President Jakov Milatović said in a New Year's Day post on X.

"I am stunned and shaken by this tragedy." — Euronews