TUZLA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) — A gunman shot dead six of his relatives and wounded another man in a rampage in a Bosnian town on Thursday before being detained as he fired on a parked car, police said.
The 45-year-old man shot dead three neighbours in Tuzla before moving on to a bus station where he killed three passengers and wounded a bus driver, police spokesman Izudin Saric told AFP.
The gunman, who was identified as Tomislav Petrovic, had been taken into police custody in the northeastern town, Saric said.
Police said he was in a "difficult psychological condition." An association that assists Bosnia's war veterans identified him as an ex-soldier, but police did not confirm the claim.
The rampage started just after Petrovic's wife had run away, taking their two daughters with her, said his sister-in-law Janja Marjanovic.
"Last night he threatened to kill them," she said.
Petrovic went to a neighbour's house at 6:00 am (0800 GMT) with a pistol and killed a couple, Mijo and Kaja Petrovic, before going to the next house where he shot dead Ivo Markanovic.
He moved to the bus station where he climbed on a bus and shot dead a male passenger and two women.
He left the scene in his car, and at another neighbourhood started firing on a parked car before he was detained.
Police said all six murder victims were members of the gunman's immediate or extended family, adding that his wife had been found and taken to a secure location.
Head of Tuzla-based association Stecak helping demobilized soldiers from Bosnia's 1992-95 war said Petrovic was arrested two months ago over another shooting incident.
"Two months ago he went on another shooting spree but without fatalities ... we warned the authorities that this might happen, but nobody was willing to listen," Alija Muratovic told AFP.
According to Muratovic, Petrovic was arrested two months ago after driving for eight kilometers (five miles) from the town of Lukavac to Tuzla shooting at houses along the way.
"For a while he had been hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital, but he was quickly released," Muratovic said.
However, police denied Petrovic was behind the shooting from two months ago. They added that he had worked in Croatia for years.
Sandra Petrovic, daughter of the murdered couple, told AFP: "Our relationships with him were quite good, we never had problems communicating, nobody could have expected this."
The 22-year-old and her younger brother Ranko were both at home when Petrovic came in and started shooting, but the two escaped and hid.
Petrovic's neighbors said he had behaved strangely and suffered from depression. They said he was known for aggressive outbursts.
The 41-year-old bus driver was taken to Tuzla hospital with severe injuries.
"He suffered severe gun wounds and is currently undergoing a surgery but his life is not in danger," Amra Odobasic, hospital spokeswoman told AFP.
Stecak provides counseling to demobilized soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and has so far assisted some 1,500 people only in the area of Tuzla.
"Given the ignorance of the problem, I am afraid this will not be the last such incident," Muratovic said.
The World Health Organization estimates that some 10 percent of Bosnia's 3.8 million population suffers from the disorder.
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