A Serbian gunman who shot dead nine people, apparently at random, in a village yesterday was arrested during the night after a police manhunt using helicopters and anti-terrorism units.
The man, armed with a rifle, was identified as Nikola Radosavljevic, 39. He had recently returned from Austria to his native village of Jabukovac near the town of Negotin, close to Serbia's eastern border with Romania.
He killed four women and five men before police seized him as he tried to kill himself. He was injured but his condition was not life threatening, Radio B92 quoted police chief Rodoljub Milovic as saying on Saturday.
"This is a tragedy the like of which we've never seen," Interior Minister Dragan Jocic told Serb media. The motive for the killings was unclear, Jocic said. "This is not in the realm of the rational," he added.