Six shot dead in Czech hospital attack, suspect shoots himself

• Police say three hours after the attack the suspect shot himself in the head in a car.
• Hospital director Jiri Havrlant told a televised briefing five people died in the attack and one died in surgery.
• The attack happened in the waiting room of the outpatient clinic and victims had been shot at close range, says Havrlant.

(PRAGUE) A gunman shot dead six people on Tuesday at a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava in an unexplained attack, authorities said.

Police hunting for the shooter said about three hours after the attack that a man had shot himself in the head in a car they had been looking for. Czech TV said he died.

"Police found the car, there was shooting heard from the site. We are establishing the identity of the man who shot himself in the head before the police action," the police said on Twitter.

It was the worst shooting since the Czech Republic's deadliest such attack in 2015 when a man shot eight people dead and then killed himself at a restaurant in the eastern city of Uhersky Brod.

Police said they received calls about a shooting at 7:19 a.m. (0619 GMT) at the University Hospital in Ostrava, 350 km (217 mi) east of the capital Prague and near the border with Poland. Officers were on the scene five minutes later.

Hospital director Jiri Havrlant told a televised briefing five people died in the attack and one died in surgery. Another two were seriously injured but no medics were hurt, he said.

The attack happened in the waiting room of the outpatient clinic and victims had been shot at close range, he said.