A gunman killed several people Wednesday in a village restaurant in southern Montenegro, near the town of Cetinje, the prime minister said, confirming a police statement reported by state broadcaster RTCG.

“A terrible tragedy has struck all of us in Cetinje, in the village of Bajice near Cetinje” Milojko Spajic told RTCG.

The earlier police statement said: “In the afternoon in a restaurant in Bajice, A.M., 45, killed several people using firearms. Armed, he left the building and ran away.”

Spajic gave no details on the number of people killed in his statement.

But he said four people seriously wounded in the attack were being treated in hospital in the capital Podgorica.

“Doctors are fighting for their lives,” he said.

“All police teams, special units, and all available forces are in Cetinje. We are searching for the perpetrator, and we are on the right track.”

The government declared three days of national mourning from Thursday, over the “tragic event that occurred today in Cetinje”, it said in a statement.

According to police the shooting was not the “result of a showdown between organised criminal groups”.

They urged people not leave their homes and said they had sent special forces to the area.

Mass shootings are rare in Montenegro.

In 2022, a man murdered 10 Cetinje residents, including two children, in broad daylight before being killed.

It was in one of the deadliest such incidents to rock the Balkan country.

Organised crime and corruption have remained two major issues plaguing Montenegro which authorities have pledged to tackle under pressure from the European Union that the tiny nation aspires to join.