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Belgrade: At least eight people were killed and 13 injured in a passing car shooting In a town near Belgrade late Thursday, the second mass killing of its kind in the country Serbia State TV reported within two days.
An RTS report early Friday said the attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot indiscriminately at people near the town of Mladenovac, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital. The report said police were searching for the 21-year-old suspect, who fled after the attack.
The report said Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Jasic described the shooting as a “terrorist act”.
She added that special police units and helicopters were sent to the area, in addition to ambulances.
No further details were immediately available and the police did not make any statements.
On Wednesday in Belgrade, a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns in a school shooting that killed eight classmates and a school guard. The bloodshed sent shock waves through a Balkan country unusual for such mass crimes.
Dozens of Serbian students, many dressed in black and carrying flowers, paid a silent tribute Thursday to their peers killed the day before.
Streaming from all over the city, students filled the streets around the school in central Belgrade. Earlier, thousands lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave games to commemorate the eight children and school guard who were killed on Wednesday morning.
People cried and hugged outside the school as they stood in front of piles of flowers, teddy bears, and soccer balls. A gray and pink elephant toy was placed by the school fence with messages of sadness, and the girls’ ballet shoes were hung from the fence.
The Balkan country is struggling to come to terms with what happened. Although the weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s have sunk in, mass shootings are still extremely rare – this is the first school shooting in Serbia’s modern history.
The tragedy also sparked debate about the general condition of the nation after decades of crises and conflicts, the repercussions of which created a permanent state of insecurity and instability, along with deep political divisions.
On Thursday, authorities moved to strengthen gun control, with police urging citizens to lock up their weapons and keep them safe, away from children.
Police said the teenager used his father’s guns to carry out the attack. On Wednesday, police said he planned for a month, drawing sketches of classrooms and making lists of the children he planned to kill.
Police said Wednesday that the boy, who visited shooting ranges with his father and apparently had the code in his father’s safe, took two handguns from the safe where they were stored with the bullets.
“The Ministry of Interior appeals to all gun owners to store their weapons with caution, and to lock them in safes or lockers so that they are out of the reach of others, especially children,” the police said in a statement. In the future.
The Wednesday morning shooting at Vladislav Ribnicar Primary School also sent seven people to hospital – six children and a teacher. On Thursday morning, doctors said a girl who was shot in the head is still in a life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries.
To help people deal with the tragedy, the authorities have announced that they are setting up a helpline. Hundreds responded to an appeal to donate blood for the wounded. The three-day mourning period will begin on Friday morning.
Serbian teachers’ unions have announced protests and strikes to demand changes and warn of a crisis in the school system. The authorities ignored responsibility, with some officials blaming Western influence rather than a deep social crisis in the country.
The shooter, who was identified by the police as Kosta Kecmanović, provided no motive for his actions.
Upon entering his school, Kecmanović killed the guard and three students in the hallway. He then went to history class where he shot the teacher before pointing his gun at the students.
Kecmanović then emptied the gun in the schoolyard and called the police himself, even though they had already received an alert from a school official. Police said that when he called, Kecmanović told the officers on duty that he was “mentally unstable and needed to calm down”.
Among the dead were seven girls, a boy and the school’s security guard. The French Foreign Ministry said one of the girls was French.
Authorities said Kecmanović was too young to be charged and tried. He was placed in a mental institution while his father was arrested on suspicion of endangering public security because his son had obtained the weapons.
“I think we are all guilty. I think each of us has some responsibility, that we have allowed some things that we should not allow to happen,” said Zoran Shafik, a Belgrade resident, during a vigil on Wednesday night near the school.
Jovan Lazović, another Belgrade resident, said he wasn’t surprised: “It was a matter of days when something like this could happen, given what’s happening in the world and here,” he said.
Gun culture pervades Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans: the region is among the highest in Europe in terms of the number of firearms per capita. Guns are often fired into the air in ceremonies and warrior worship is part of the national identity. However, the last mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a village in central Serbia.
Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the gun count in a deeply divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals and violence against minorities is often glorified with impunity. They also noted that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as persistent economic hardship could lead to such outbursts.
“We have been exposed to a lot of violence for a very long time,” psychologist Zarko Trypjisanen told N1 TV. “Copy children’s models. We need to eliminate negative models… and create a different system of values.”
An RTS report early Friday said the attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot indiscriminately at people near the town of Mladenovac, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital. The report said police were searching for the 21-year-old suspect, who fled after the attack.
The report said Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Jasic described the shooting as a “terrorist act”.
She added that special police units and helicopters were sent to the area, in addition to ambulances.
No further details were immediately available and the police did not make any statements.
On Wednesday in Belgrade, a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns in a school shooting that killed eight classmates and a school guard. The bloodshed sent shock waves through a Balkan country unusual for such mass crimes.
Dozens of Serbian students, many dressed in black and carrying flowers, paid a silent tribute Thursday to their peers killed the day before.
Streaming from all over the city, students filled the streets around the school in central Belgrade. Earlier, thousands lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave games to commemorate the eight children and school guard who were killed on Wednesday morning.
People cried and hugged outside the school as they stood in front of piles of flowers, teddy bears, and soccer balls. A gray and pink elephant toy was placed by the school fence with messages of sadness, and the girls’ ballet shoes were hung from the fence.
The Balkan country is struggling to come to terms with what happened. Although the weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s have sunk in, mass shootings are still extremely rare – this is the first school shooting in Serbia’s modern history.
The tragedy also sparked debate about the general condition of the nation after decades of crises and conflicts, the repercussions of which created a permanent state of insecurity and instability, along with deep political divisions.
On Thursday, authorities moved to strengthen gun control, with police urging citizens to lock up their weapons and keep them safe, away from children.
Police said the teenager used his father’s guns to carry out the attack. On Wednesday, police said he planned for a month, drawing sketches of classrooms and making lists of the children he planned to kill.
Police said Wednesday that the boy, who visited shooting ranges with his father and apparently had the code in his father’s safe, took two handguns from the safe where they were stored with the bullets.
“The Ministry of Interior appeals to all gun owners to store their weapons with caution, and to lock them in safes or lockers so that they are out of the reach of others, especially children,” the police said in a statement. In the future.
The Wednesday morning shooting at Vladislav Ribnicar Primary School also sent seven people to hospital – six children and a teacher. On Thursday morning, doctors said a girl who was shot in the head is still in a life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries.
To help people deal with the tragedy, the authorities have announced that they are setting up a helpline. Hundreds responded to an appeal to donate blood for the wounded. The three-day mourning period will begin on Friday morning.
Serbian teachers’ unions have announced protests and strikes to demand changes and warn of a crisis in the school system. The authorities ignored responsibility, with some officials blaming Western influence rather than a deep social crisis in the country.
The shooter, who was identified by the police as Kosta Kecmanović, provided no motive for his actions.
Upon entering his school, Kecmanović killed the guard and three students in the hallway. He then went to history class where he shot the teacher before pointing his gun at the students.
Kecmanović then emptied the gun in the schoolyard and called the police himself, even though they had already received an alert from a school official. Police said that when he called, Kecmanović told the officers on duty that he was “mentally unstable and needed to calm down”.
Among the dead were seven girls, a boy and the school’s security guard. The French Foreign Ministry said one of the girls was French.
Authorities said Kecmanović was too young to be charged and tried. He was placed in a mental institution while his father was arrested on suspicion of endangering public security because his son had obtained the weapons.
“I think we are all guilty. I think each of us has some responsibility, that we have allowed some things that we should not allow to happen,” said Zoran Shafik, a Belgrade resident, during a vigil on Wednesday night near the school.
Jovan Lazović, another Belgrade resident, said he wasn’t surprised: “It was a matter of days when something like this could happen, given what’s happening in the world and here,” he said.
Gun culture pervades Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans: the region is among the highest in Europe in terms of the number of firearms per capita. Guns are often fired into the air in ceremonies and warrior worship is part of the national identity. However, the last mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a village in central Serbia.
Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the gun count in a deeply divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals and violence against minorities is often glorified with impunity. They also noted that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as persistent economic hardship could lead to such outbursts.
“We have been exposed to a lot of violence for a very long time,” psychologist Zarko Trypjisanen told N1 TV. “Copy children’s models. We need to eliminate negative models… and create a different system of values.”
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