Police officers patrol near a restaurant where a gunman opened fire in Uhersky Brod, in the east of the Czech Republic, on Feb. 24, 2015.DALIBOR GLUCK/The Associated Press
A gunman opened fire inside a restaurant in eastern Czech Republic Tuesday, killing eight people and wounding one before he fatally shot himself, officials said. It was the worst shooting attack in the country's history.
The gunman was a local man aged around 60, said Patrik Kuncar, mayor of the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod. A waitress from the restaurant was hospitalized, he said.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, who arrived at the scene, said the man had a gun license and "it was not a terrorist attack."
The gunman killed eight before killing himself, police spokesman Pavel Stransky told The Associated Press.
The attack shocked the town of 17,000 that lies 300 kilometres (185 miles) southeast of Prague, the capital, and is home to the Ceska Zbrojovka gun plant.
"Nobody believed anything like that could happen in such a small town," Kuncar said. "I can hardly imagine what consequences it will have for the future life in this town."
The country's chief police officer, Tomas Tuhy, said authorities wouldn't reveal more information in the coming hours because of the ongoing investigation.
The waitress was shot in the chest has undergone hour-long surgery, said Dana Lipovska, spokesman for the hospital in the nearby town of Uherske Hradiste. Her condition remains "very serious," Lipovska said.
Czech public radio said the gunman called a local television station before the attack, complaining that police weren't solving his problems and threatening that he would "take things into his hands."
The Czech Republic has strict gun control laws, but hunting is popular in the eastern European nation.
"I am shocked by the tragic attack in Uhersky Brod," Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in a statement while on a trip to South Korea. He offered his condolences to the victims' relatives.
The Czech Republic became an independent nation in 1993 after the split of Czechoslovakia.
In a tragedy of a similar scope in the communist Czechoslovakia, a female driver intentionally hit with her truck a group of people waiting for a tram in Prague, killing eight. She was later executed.
Petr Gabriel was in the restaurant's bathroom when the shooting began.
"That saved my life," Gabriel told Czech public television. He spent two hours in the bathroom until he was found by police.