Nine dead in gun rampage at Czech restaurant

PRAGUE - Agence France-Presse

A police officer patrols near a restaurant where a gunman opened fire injuring at least one person in Uhersky Brod, in the east of the Czech Republic, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. AP Photo

An apparently unstable armed man burst into a restaurant in an eastern Czech town on Feb. 23, killing eight people before reportedly committing suicide, police and local officials said.
     
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said eight people had been killed in the rampage at the "Friendship" restaurant in the town of Uhersky Brod and that the gunman was also dead.
      
There was no indication it was a terrorist act, although nerves are running high in Europe after the deadly attacks in Paris and Copenhagen.
      
Chovanec said the gunman had died, without giving further information, while the local mayor Patrik Kuncar said he had committed suicide.
      
The mayor described the gunman as a resident of the town aged in his 60s, saying he had possible mental health issues.
      
Kuncar said around 25 shots were heard in the in the Droujba ("Friendship") restaurant in the town centre while around 20 customers were inside.
     
Police said several people had also been  wounded, including a woman hospitalised in a critical condition.        

"I'm rattled by this event. I never would have imagined something like this happening here, in a restaurant that I know well," Kuncar told state television Ceska Televize (CT).