PODGORICA — A gunman has shot dead at least 10 people, including two children, in southern Montenegro on Wednesday, police say.

At least some of the deaths happened inside a restaurant in the Cetinje area following a verbal argument between guests, according to a police official quoted by public broadcaster RTCG.

It was later confirmed that the attacker had killed himself.

The government has declared three days of national mourning from Thursday with Prime Minister Milojko Spajic describing the shooting as a "terrible tragedy".

The gunman killed members of his own family, two of the restaurant owner's children and also the owner, according to Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic.

Mr Saranovic called the incident a "consequence of disturbed interpersonal relations", according to AFP news agency.

Four people were in a life-threatening condition in hospital after being seriously wounded in the shooting, the agency reported the prime minister as saying.

The attacker, named as Aleksandar Martinović, 45, fled the scene but later fatally injured himself after being surrounded by police who asked him to drop his weapon, a police official said.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in the small Balkan nation. — BBC