Gunman kills 6, wounds 9, then commits suicide in the Slovak capital

Gunman kills 6, wounds 9 in Slovakia

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A gunman killed six people and wounded at least nine in an attack in a neighborhood of Bratislava on Monday, then committed suicide, police said.

The attacker, armed with a machine gun and two pistols, could not immediately be identified and his motive was not known, said police chief Jaroslav Spisiak.

The shooting took place at midmorning in the rundown Devinska Nova Ves neighborhood on the outskirts of the Slovak capital that is surrounded by fields and industrial areas. Five of the fatalities — four women and a man — were gunned down inside an apartment in a brown high-rise building, and another man was shot and killed outside it, Spisiak told a news conference.

Police rushed to the scene as the attacker, about 50 years old, was leaving the building, and he fired indiscriminately at people in the area, wounding at least nine of them, including a policeman, said Spisiak.

Previous news reports had said 14 people were wounded.

Emergency crews blocked off the scene, which includes a kindergarten and a supermarket.

Hours after the attack, stunned residents milled about in disbelief.

“I’m shocked,” said 20-year-old Andre Smahovski, a student whose friend was injured in the attack. “Normally this doesn’t happen here.”

Christian Padour, 40, described how his sister-in-law was at a doctor’s office when a woman who had been shot by the gunman entered — to the horror of those present.

“I feel safe here, but now it looks like the Wild West,” Padour said.

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Rybarova reported from the Czech Republic.