File Photo: Xinhua

A gunman killed himself on Tuesday after shooting dead six patients at a hospital in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, in what the premier has called "an immense tragedy."

The attacker gunned down people at close range at the trauma ward of the Faculty Hospital in Ostrava, a steel hub located some 300 kilometers east of Prague.

Four men and two women died during the assault, which lasted only a few seconds according to police. Two other people were seriously wounded while a third person sustained light injuries.

Police said they had not yet determined what drove the 42-year-old to launch the attack.

"I was told the dead victims were people sitting in the waiting room of the trauma ward, fortunately there were not as many as usual," Prime Minister Andrej Babis told local media.

"The gunman was allegedly shooting from a close range, aiming at the head and neck."

The shooter then fled the scene in a silver Renault Laguna car, sparking a dramatic police hunt with hundreds of officers and two helicopters chasing him. The man turned the gun on himself inside the vehicle as police were about to capture him in a village just northwest of Ostrava, regional police chief Tomas Kuzel said. 

Gun rampages are rare in the EU member country of 10.7 million people.

In 2015, a restaurant guest in the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod shot dead seven men and a woman before committing suicide.

In March, a patient at a Prague hospital shot two fellow patients after an argument in a room. One of the men died.