THOUSANDS rallied in Montenegro on Sunday to demand the resignation of top security officials over the shooting last week that left 12 people dead, including two children.

Chanting “resignations” and “killers,” protesters outside the Interior Ministry building in the capital Podgorica demanded that Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic and Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defence Aleksa Becic step down.

Milo Perovic, from a student-led group that helped organise the rally, told the crowd that innocent people had died on their watch.

“You failed to protect us, so resign,” he said.

Hours earlier, hundreds of people held a 12-minute silence for the 12 victims at a rally in Cetinje, Montenegro’s historic capital, where the shooting took place on Wednesday. 

It was the second such massacre in the town in less than three years.

Many residents of Cetinje and other Montenegrins believe that police mishandled the situation and have not done enough to boost security since the first massacre, which happened in August 2022.

Wednesday’s shooting resulted from a bar brawl. Local man Aco Martinovic went home to get his gun before returning to the bar and opening fire. 

He killed four people there and eight more at various other locations before killing himself.

Police have said the shooting was impossible to predict and prevent.