A “RADICALISED TEENAGER” has shot dead two men at an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava, according to Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

The shooting happened yesterday outside the Teplaren bar and police said they found the gunman dead at another location today.

“Two people were murdered just because they were part of the LGBTI community,” Heger said.

“This is unacceptable,” he told reporters, adding: “In a free and democratic country, homosexuals have a right to live freely.”

On Twitter, Heger described the shooter as a “radicalised teenager”.

Local media identified him as 19-year-old Juraj Krajcik, the son of a prominent member of the far-right Vlast party.

The party failed to get enough votes to enter parliament in the 2020 general election.

Teplaren is located in the city centre and is popular with Slovakia’s LGBTQ community.

Witnesses told local media outlet the Sme daily they had heard up to 10 shots fired.

According to reports and a local university, one of the victims was a Chinese language student who worked part-time at Teplaren. The other was his friend, a shop worker.

The reports said a third person, a waitress who was talking to the two men, was wounded and taken to hospital.

Police said Krajcik’s body was found in a park in a different part of the city at around 8am (6am Irish time) today.

Media reports said he had left homophobic and anti-Semitic messages on a Twitter account, saying he did not regret his actions.

“The deliberate murder of two young people shocked us and deeply affected us,” the Inakost Initiative, a Slovak LGBTQ organisation, said on Facebook.

Inakost (Difference) will hold a commemorative protest tomorrow in Bratislava.

 © AFP 2022