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People stand near a shooting spree spot in the Bratislava suburb of Devinska Nova Ves on August 30, 2010. At least seven people inlcuding the gunman were killed and a dozen others wounded in a shooting spree in the Slovak capital of Bratislava on Monday, the state-run TASR news agency reported. [Liu Shilei/Xinhua]

Eight people, including the gunman, died and 13 others were seriously injured in a shooting incident in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Monday, local police said.

The deadly shooting spree is the worst of its kind in more than a decade, the police added.

According to a report of the state-run TASR news agency, the incident occurred at around 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) Monday in Devinska Nova Ves district on the outskirts of Bratislava.

An unidentified middle-aged man attacked a family of Roma minority, killing six of its members. He then started shooting on people in the street and neighboring houses with an automatic gun and other weapons, fatally injuring a 50-year-old woman on a balcony.

"Policemen arrived two minutes after they got an emergency call and saw the presumed murderer coming out of the house," police chief Jaroslav Spisiak said at a press conference, adding that the gunman fired at the police and also indiscriminately at the passers-by.

When the police got the man cornered, he committed suicide, said Spisiak.

One of the relatives of the murdered family told local reporters that the gunman lived in the neighborhood and had threatened them. She accused him of having anti-Roma racist attitudes.

But the police said the motive of the shooting is still under investigation.

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