Nine people are dead and another injured after a gunman opened fire in a restaurant in the Czech Republic.

The shooter was a local man aged around 60, according to Patrik Kuncar, mayor of the south eastern town of Uhersky Brod.

The incident is the worst shooting attack in the country's history. Interior minister Milan Chovanec said it was not a terrorist attack.

Mr Chovanec said the man had a gun licence. Police spokesman Pavel Stransky told The Associated Press the gunman killed eight people before fatally shooting himself.

The attack shocked the town of 17,000 that lies 185 miles south east of Prague, the capital, and is home to the Ceska Zbrojovka gun plant.

"Nobody believed anything like that could happen in such a small town," Mr Kuncar said. "I can hardly imagine what consequences it will have for the future life in this town."

The country's chief police officer, Tomas Tuhy, said authorities would not reveal more information in the coming hours because of the ongoing investigation.

Czech public radio said the gunman called a local television station before the attack, complaining that police were not solving his problems and threatening that he would "take things into his hands".

The Czech Republic has strict gun control laws, but hunting is popular in the eastern European nation.

"I am shocked by the tragic attack in Uhersky Brod," Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in a statement while on a trip to South Korea. He offered his condolences to the victims' relatives.

The Czech Republic became an independent nation in 1993 after the split of Czechoslovakia.