An armed gunman stormed into a Czech Republic restaurant on Tuesday, fatally shooting eight people before committing suicide, CNN reported.
The shooting, which took place in the eastern Czech town of Uhersky Brod, 180 miles southeast of Prague, has about eight confirmed victims, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec told news agency CTK. According to local media reports, two other people were also wounded in the shooting.
"The shooter is also dead," a Czech Interior Ministry spokesman said. "The interior minister is flying to the area now."
"There was a massive shooting in the restaurant, the attacker is thought to be a local man in his 60s," the spokesman said, adding that the whole operation lasted several hours.
Around 12:30 p.m. local time in the Druzba restaurant, a man in his 60s burst into the cafe with two weapons and fired about 25 times before turning the gun on himself, said Patrik Kuncar, the mayor of the southeastern town of Uherske Brod.
About 20 people were inside the restaurant when the gunman started his rampage, BBC News reported. Two more people were injured during the attack, including a waitress.
Even though the identity or motivation of the shooter was not immediately available, investigators don't believe the incident to have been terror-related, the spokesman said.
No details have yet emerged about the victims, who were in the restaurant eating lunch at the time of the attack, Czech TV reporter Vaclav Cernohorsky said.
"According to available news, this is not a terrorist attack, but an act committed by aberrant individual," Chovanec said on Twitter, adding that the suspect was believed to be mentally unstable.
Uhersky Brod, a town of about 50,000 people, is located in the eastern region of the Czech Republic near the border with Slovakia. The Czech Republic has strict gun control laws but hunting is popular in the eastern European nation, New York Daily News reported.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
