Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police have cordoned off the area around the cafe and are investigating the gunman's motive

Five people have been shot dead and at least 20 injured in a cafe in north-eastern Serbia.

Police say the gunman killed his wife and another woman, before randomly shooting at other customers at the cafe.

Three children were among those injured in the attack near the city of Zrenjanin, the interior ministry said.

The gunman was arrested and police are investigating his motive, which is believed to be jealousy.

Witnesses told Serbia's state TV that the attacker came to the Makijato cafe and saw his wife there with a group of friends, the AP news agency reports. He apparently went home and came back with a gun.

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

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police have been talking to witnesses

"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."

Serbia's Interior Minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic, said the cafe guests eventually managed to grab the weapon from the man's hands.

Mr Stefanovic said the automatic weapon was illegal, and he appealed to people to hand over any illegal weapons, which proliferated after the war in the Balkans in the 1990s.