Eight persons were gunned down in a village near Negotin on Friday evening, police launching a massive operation to track down the perpetrator.

He was identified as Nikola Radosavljevic, 39, and according to witnesses, the man indiscriminately opened fire on bystanders after an alleged quarrel with his wife. The gunman had recently returned from Austria in his native village of Jabukovac, located near Serbia’s borders with Romania and Bulgaria.

Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic was astonished by the incident and assured that the perpetrator will be arrested and respond for his actions.

“This is a tragedy the like of which we've never seen. There can't be reason enough to kill eight people. This is not in the realm of the rational,” the minister told media representatives.

Authorities deployed numerous security troops in the area along with two helicopters in order to find the gunman, who reportedly tried to commit suicide a day before Friday’s shooting spree.