BELGRADE, Serbia — A shooter killed a minimum of eight individuals and wounded 13 in a drive-by assault close to a city near Belgrade late Thursday, the second such mass killing in Serbia in two days, state tv reported.
The attacker shot randomly at individuals close to the city of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, the RTS report mentioned early Friday. Police had been searching for a 21-year-old suspect who fled after the assault, the report mentioned.
The capturing got here a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s weapons in a rampage at a faculty in Belgrade that killed eight of his fellow college students and a faculty guard.
The bloodshed despatched shockwaves by a Balkan nation unused to mass murders.
Although Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the Nineties, mass shootings are extraordinarily uncommon. Wednesday’s faculty capturing was the primary within the nation’s trendy historical past. The final mass capturing earlier than this week was in 2013, when a battle veteran killed 13 individuals in a central Serbian village.
Serbian Inside Minister Bratislav Gasic referred to as Thursday’s capturing “a terrorist act,” state media reported.
Particular police and helicopter items have been despatched to the area in addition to ambulances, it added.
No different particulars had been instantly out there, and police had not issued any statements.
Earlier Thursday, Serbian college students, many sporting black and carrying flowers, stuffed streets across the faculty in central Belgrade as they paid silent homage to friends killed a day earlier. Hundreds lined as much as lay flowers, mild candles and depart toys to commemorate the 9 individuals who had been killed on Wednesday morning.
The tragedy additionally sparked a debate in regards to the normal state of the nation following a long time of crises and conflicts whose aftermath have created a state of everlasting insecurity and instability, together with deep political divisions.
Authorities on Thursday moved to spice up gun management, as police urged residents to lock up their weapons and hold them away from kids.
Police have mentioned that the teenager used his father’s weapons to hold out the assault. He had deliberate it for a month, drawing sketches of school rooms and making lists of the youngsters he deliberate to kill, police mentioned on Wednesday.
The boy, who had visited capturing ranges along with his father and apparently had the code to his father’s protected, took two weapons from the protected the place they had been saved along with bullets, police mentioned on Wednesday.
The capturing on Wednesday morning in Vladislav Ribnikar main faculty additionally left seven individuals hospitalized — six kids and a instructor. One woman who was shot within the head stays in a life-threatening situation, and a boy is in severe situation with spinal accidents, docs mentioned on Thursday morning.
To assist individuals take care of the tragedy, authorities introduced they had been organising a helpline. Tons of answered a name to donate blood for the wounded victims. A 3-day mourning interval will start Friday morning.
Serbian lecturers’ unions introduced protests and strikes to warn a couple of disaster within the faculty system and demand modifications. Authorities shrugged off duty, with some officers blaming Western affect.
The shooter, whom the police recognized as Kosta Kecmanovic, has not given any motive for his actions.
Upon getting into his faculty, Kecmanovic first killed the guard and three college students within the hallway. He then went to the historical past classroom the place he shot a instructor earlier than turning his gun on the scholars.
Kecmanovic then unloaded the gun within the faculty yard and referred to as the police himself, though that they had already obtained an alert from a faculty official. When he referred to as, Kecmanovic instructed responsibility officers he was a “psychopath who must settle down,” police mentioned.
The kids killed Wednesday had been seven women and one boy. One of many women was a French citizen, France’s overseas ministry mentioned.
Authorities have mentioned that Kecmanovic is simply too younger to be charged and tried. He has been positioned in a psychological establishment, whereas his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public safety as a result of his son received maintain of the weapons.
“I feel we’re all responsible. I feel every one among us has some duty, that we allowed some issues we must always not enable,” mentioned Zoran Sefik, a Belgrade resident, throughout Wednesday night’s vigil close to the college.
Jovan Lazovic, one other Belgrade resident, mentioned he was not stunned: “It was a matter of days when one thing like this might occur, having in thoughts what is going on on the planet and right here,” he mentioned.
Gun tradition is widespread in Serbia and elsewhere within the Balkans: The area has among the many highest numbers of weapons per capita in Europe. Weapons are sometimes fired into the air at celebrations and the cult of the warrior is a part of nationwide identities.
Specialists have repeatedly warned of the hazard posed by the variety of weapons in a extremely divided nation like Serbia, the place convicted battle criminals are glorified and violence in opposition to minority teams usually goes unpunished. In addition they observe that a long time of instability stemming from the conflicts of the Nineties, in addition to ongoing financial hardship, may set off such outbursts.
“We’ve had an excessive amount of violence for too lengthy,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin instructed N1 tv. “Youngsters copy fashions. We have to remove destructive fashions … and create a distinct system of values.”
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