Village in mourning after man with rifle kills nine

Serbia:A village in eastern Serbia yesterday buried nine people killed by a local man who went on an hour-long killing spree with a hunting rifle.

Residents of Jabukovac said Nikola Radosavljevic (38) roamed the streets of his native village on Friday night, firing randomly at men, women and children, before running to his parents' graveside in the local cemetery where he tried unsuccessfully to kill himself.

His nine victims included a 15-year-old boy and a man aged 60 while a 70-year-old woman and 36-year-old man were in a stable condition with gunshot wounds in the same hospital as Radosavljevic, who was reported to have chest injuries following his failed suicide attempt.

Serbian television showed bodies lying on the ground in the dark on Friday night, some with candles flickering beside them, apparently placed there by grieving relatives.

One elderly man said Radosavljevic had pushed open the gate of their cottage and gunned down his wife as she tried to hide in the garage: "I am all alone now," he said.

Serbia's interior minister, Dragan Jocic, who was to attend yesterday's funerals, called the massacre "a huge tragedy with no rational explanation".

Police said Radosavljevic had recently returned to his village from Austria, where he worked since 2006, and had an argument with his wife before he went on the rampage. Some local reports said he also tried to commit suicide on Thursday.

Serbian television showed footage of Radosavljevic, his face, shorts and T-shirt smeared with blood, being helped by police officers into an ambulance. It was not clear how he was injured.

He was tracked down after a search involving police helicopters and anti-terrorism units, which sealed off the village while terrified residents locked themselves inside their homes.

Officials said Radosavljevic had undergone psychiatric tests following his arrest, but the results were not disclosed.

Former Yugoslavia has recorded a rise in mental illness and violent crime following the wars that dismembered the federation in the 1990s; many men had traumatic experiences for which they have received little help, and firearms are often kept in homes.

Guns and grenades are used relatively often to settle disputes in parts of Bosnia and Serbia while, in February, a Bosnian Muslim refugee shot five people dead in a Salt Lake City shopping mall, before being killed by police.