A JEALOUS husband shot dead five people, including his wife, and injured 20 others in a crowded cafe in northern Serbia early on Saturday.

The rampaging gunman "entered the cafe and opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing his wife and another woman, then he continued to shoot at other citizens in the cafe," a police statement said.

7 The bar was left damaged by gunfire following the horrific attack Credit: Reuters

7 Blood stains on the ground at a cafe after a shooting during a local festival in the village of Zitiste Credit: Reuters

7 The cafe bartop was damaged after the jealous gunman opened fire, spraying bullets in the crowded area Credit: Reuters

The shooting happened at about 01:40 on Saturday morning in the town of Zitiste - 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Belgrade.

Police arrested the shooter after brave cafe customers managed to grab his weapon as he tried to run away.

Officials later identified the man only as "Z.S." born in 1978.

Witnesses told Serbian state TV the attacker came into the cafe and argued with his wife in front of her friends before going home and returning with the loaded gun.

Reports said he first fired in the air and then targeted his wife before randomly gunning down other occupants of the 'Makijato' cafe.

"He just pulled out a gun and started shooting, first into the air," one of the witnesses, Svetozar Manojlovic, said.

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"It sounded like firecrackers at first," he said. "Then the guy next to me fell down and others started falling down. It was total chaos."

Cafe owner Ljubomir Milinovic said people didn't immediately grasp what was going on. The cafe was packed with people enjoying a hot summer night.

"It was horrible, people were screaming and there was blood everywhere," Milinovic said. "We immediately started rushing people to the hospital and ambulances soon arrived."

Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic visited the scene and later told Serbian news outlets that the weapon was illegal and jealousy was believed to be the motive.

7 The attacker reportedly opened fire with an illegal automatic weapon left in circulation from the Balkan wars Credit: AP:Associated Press

7 A police tape cordoned off the area outside the cafe after the shooting in the village of Zitiste, Serbia Credit: Reuters

It is the third mass shooting in recent years in Serbia, which has tried to shrink the number of illegal weapons in circulation since the 1990s Balkan wars.

"We are all shocked that something like this could happen, since this was a very quiet man who had no police record," Stephanovic said according to the state-run Tanjug news agency.

One channel reported the attacker argued with his wife in the cafe, left the building and returned with a Kalashnikov-type rifle with which he opened fire.

Two people were killed instantly, while three died after being taken to hospital in the nearby city of Zrenjanin, the channel's report said.

The others wounded, some of them severely, were taken to various Serbian hospitals but were not in critical condition, reports said.

7 A police officer walks past the blood-soaked ground at the scene of the shooting Credit: Reuters

7 A man talks to police officers at the scene after 5 people were gunned down and 20 others hospitalised Credit: Reuters

Illegal gun ownership is widespread in Serbia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia.

Police have previously said there could be several hundred thousand unregistered weapons in the country, including guns and grenades, remaining from the 1990s Balkan wars.

The shooting spree came a day after the interior ministry launched a new drive to encourage owners of illegal weapons to hand them in to their local police stations.

Such people "will not be held accountable for unauthorised buying and holding of weapons," the police announcement said Friday.

Local authorities say they will declare a three-day mourning starting Sunday.

Saturday's mass shooting is not the first in recent years for Serbia.

Last year a 55-year-old man went on a shooting spree in a northern Serbian town in an apparent drunken rage at his son's wedding, killing six people including the bride and her parents.

In 2013 a 60-year-old Serbian war veteran shot dead 13 people in the country's worst massacre in two decades as he rampaged through his tiny village about 50 kilometres south of Belgrade.

The dead included his son and his mother as he went house-to-house, mainly shooting people in the head as they slept peacefully.

The gunman later died from a self-inflicted gun wound.

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