Serbian police were searching early Friday for the perpetrator of a shooting in a town 60 kilometers from Belgrade that killed eight people, just a day after a similar massacre at a school in the capital.
The incident occurred Thursday night near Mladenovac, south of Belgrade, when a 21-year-old fired an automatic weapon from a moving vehicle before fleeing, state television RTS said. The shooting, which also resulted in 13 people being injured, spread through three different towns in the area, according to state media.
This event deepened the stupor in Serbia, still shocked by the massacre perpetrated on Wednesday by a 13-year-old boy in a primary school in the center of Belgrade, where eight students and a security guard died. As the sun rose on Friday, police helicopters hovered over the scene of the latest incident, where there was a strong presence of security forces, an AFP photographer found.
Around 600 officers were deployed to the scene, according to RTS, including members of the anti-terror unit patrolling the highway. The road that connects to the towns of Malo Orasje and Dubona, where the shooting took place, had been blocked by the police.
“terrorist act”
Concerned relatives gathered outside a Belgrade emergency medical center where at least eight of the people injured in the attack were taken, N1 television said. The Minister of Health, Danica Grjuicic, visited the place. On her part, the Minister of the Interior, Bratislav Gasic, assured that the event was a “terrorist act”, according to RTS.
The search operation for the attacker coincides with the beginning of the three days of mourning decreed by the government after the massacre that occurred in a Belgrade primary school. In addition to the nine fatalities, six students and a teacher were injured. Two of them are in a critical situation after undergoing several operations, according to medical authorities.
The assailant was arrested shortly after the massacre on the school grounds, where he awaited the arrival of the police, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. His father, a renowned doctor and owner of the weapon used, was arrested and must testify in court on Friday. His mother was also questioned.
unusual gun violence
Gun violence in schools is extremely rare in Serbia, a country of seven million people with around 765,000 registered weapons. The Interior Ministry urged gun owners to keep them in locked places and warned that they could be seized from those who do not follow this instruction.
President Aleksandar Vucic, who deplored the event as “one of the most difficult days in contemporary history” of the country, also called for strengthening arms control measures and proposed a two-year moratorium on the granting of new permits. The Vladislav Ribnikar school, which caters for students from 7 to 15 years old in the center of Belgrade, remained closed on Thursday, with police guarding the entrance to the building.
Hundreds of people came to the place to lay flowers, toys or lit candles in an impromptu memorial. There were also tributes in other Serbian cities such as Nis and Kragujevac, in the Croatian capital Zagreb or in Banja Luka, the administrative center of the Bosnian Serb Republic.
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