Serbia hit by second mass shooting day after deadly school attack
At least 13 others wounded after attacker in moving car opened fire on people in a town south of Belgrade.
At least eight people have been killed and 13 wounded after a gunman in a moving car opened fire on passers-by in a town south of the Serbian capital.
The incident took place late on Thursday near the town of Mladenovac, 50km (30 miles) south of Belgrade, according to state television.
The 21-year-old attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot randomly at people. He was on the run for hours before police arrested him early Friday, state broadcaster RTS TV reported.
Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic called the shooting “a terrorist act”. Ambulances, as well as special police and helicopter units, have been sent to the area.
The Mladenovac attack comes as Serbia reels from a shooting rampage at a central Belgrade school in which a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns to kill eight of his schoolmates and a security guard. One of the dead children was a French citizen, the France’s foreign ministry said.
Earlier on Thursday, dozens of students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, paid their respects to the victims. People cried and hugged outside the school, still cordoned off by police following Wednesday’s attack, as they stood in front of heaps of flowers, small teddy bears and footballs.
The Balkans is among the top regions in Europe in the number of guns per capita and Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s.
Still, the country has strict gun laws and the last mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.
Authorities on Thursday moved to further tighten gun control and police urged citizens to lock up their guns and keep them away from children.
Police have said the shooter, whom they identified as Kosta Kecmanovic, planned the attack for a month, drawing sketches of classrooms at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school and compiling lists of the children he planned to kill.
The shootings at Vladislav Ribnikar primary school also left seven people in hospital – six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in a life-threatening condition, while a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, doctors said on Thursday.
Kecmanovic has not given any motive for his actions.
A three-day mourning period for the school shooting is due to begin on Friday morning.
Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the number of weapons in a highly-divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals are glorified and violence against minority groups often goes unpunished.
They add there is also a risk from decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as ongoing economic hardship.
“We have had too much violence for too long,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin told N1 television. “Children copy models. We need to eliminate negative models … and create a different system of values.”
The shootings at Vladislav Ribnikar primary school also left seven people in hospital – six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in a life-threatening condition, while a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, doctors said on Thursday.
Kecmanovic has not given any motive for his actions.
A three-day mourning period for the school shooting is due to begin on Friday morning.
Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the number of weapons in a highly-divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals are glorified and violence against minority groups often goes unpunished.
They add there is also a risk from decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as ongoing economic hardship.
“We have had too much violence for too long,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin told N1 television. “Children copy models. We need to eliminate negative models … and create a different system of values.”
Video Duration 04 minutes 06 seconds04:06Eight children, security guard killed in Serbia school shooting.
