Eight school children and a guard were killed in central Belgrade on Wednesday after a teenage boy opened fire in a school. Six more children and a teacher were rushed to the hospital after receiving injuries.
Police identified the shooter by his initials, K.K., and said that he got his father’s gun and fired from it. The police further added that the culprit was born in 2009, and they arrested him.
Police received information about the tragic incident at the school around 8:40 am.
Local media footage from the site showed that there was disturbance outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as cops brought him to a car parked in the street.
Mass shootings are incredibly uncommon in Serbia and the larger Balkan region, and none have been reported in schools recently. In the most recent mass shooting, a veteran of the Balkan wars murdered 13 people in a village in the centre of Serbia in 2013.
But experts have repeatedly expressed concern about the quantity of weapons that the 1990s wars left behind in the nation. They also point out that such eruptions could be brought on by the continuous economic suffering as well as the decades-long instability brought on by the wars.
Milan Milosevic said that his daughter was in history class when the shooting incident occurred. He ran when he heard the shooting.
He went on to say that “I asked where my child was, but no one answered anything.” Then found her outside the school.