Gunman who killed 13 used to beat wife with chain

The wife of a Serbian gunman who shot dead 13 people in the country's worst massacre in two decades offered a harrowing account of the tragedy on Thursday, as it emerged the killer had a history of domestic violence.

Javorka Bogdanovic told police her husband Ljubisa, a 60-year-old war veteran, shot her again when he realised she had survived his first attack, according to the Vecernje Novosti daily.

"I was in the kitchen where I usually sleep when he entered with a gun saying there was no more life for us. Then he fired," she told police, according to the daily.

Hit in the head, the wife heard another shot before fainting. When she regained consciousness she crawled to the bathroom.

"Then I heard the door. He again entered the house and talked to me, surprised to see me alive. He shot me again," the woman was reported as saying.

When Bogdanovic had finished his Tuesday rampage in the tiny village of Velika Ivanca, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Belgrade, six men, six women and a two-year old boy were dead.

Some neighbours in the village had initially expressed surprise that he was capable of such violence, but his brother-in-law said he had a history of beating his wife.

"He was brutally beating her (Javorka) when the kids were small. I know that he was nervous and had a bad temper," Zivomir Starcevic told the Vecernje Novosti.

"My sister never wanted to admit it, but I found out that he even beat her with a chain," said Starcevic.

Javorka has been in hospital since the attack but her life is not in danger. The killer remains in critical condition after shooting himself in the head.

The victims are expected to be buried on Friday as Serbia remains in shock after its worst such bloodbath in 20 years.

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