The shooting attack in the Czech town of Uhersky Brod on Tuesday in which eight people were killed was not a terrorist attack, Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said Tuesday night, according to the Bulgarian Sofia news agency.

The perpetrator, a local man aged 60, shot himself dead after killing seven men and one woman in a restaurant in the town situated about 300 kilometers southeast of Prague.

Czech news agency CTK reported that the man called the Crime News line of local commercial TV station Prima before the shooting spree, to complain about harassment the authorities had ignored.

He also told Prima that “he had a gun and some hostages and would make his own decision,” according to Pavel Lebduska, head of regional broadcasting at the TV station.

Czech Television said the gunman fired about 25 rounds. At least 20 people are believed to have been in the restaurant at the time of the attack.

Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, expressed his shock at the “act of unspeakable violence” in the Czech Republic, where gun crime is rare.