A mass shooting in a Belgrade school has left eight pupils and one security worker dead. Seven more were injured in the shooting, including six pupils and one history teacher.
The mass shooting took place on Wednesday morning.
According to police, a minor was arrested for the shooting. He was born in 2009, and committed the crime using his father’s guns.
The boy’s father was also detained. He holds a license for both guns used in the attack.
The chief of Belgrade police, Veselin Milic, said police received the first call regarding the mass shooting in a Belgrade school at around 8:40am, during the first class of the day. The call came from the school deputy director reporting a shooting incident.
According to Milic, police then received a call from the suspect, who told the police what he did.
Of the child victims, seven girls were killed, and one boy. Five of the children were born in 2009, one in 2010, and two in 2011.
According to police investigations, the suspect had “planned the execution of this criminal offense over a long period of time.”
“The motive has not yet been determined nor has he told us,” Milic told reporters.
Milic said the suspect first shot the security worker, Vladislav Ribnikar, and then shot students in the hallway. He then entered his history classroom. The suspect reportedly carried a list of names of children he planned to kill.
According to school staff, the suspect was an exemplary pupil.
When asked about any violence the suspect had been exposed to, Education Minister Branko Ruzic said the boy had experienced violence while attending a private acting school. Even so, Ruzic dismissed any possible connection between the two incidents.
Ruzic said “Western values,” the internet and video games should be blamed for the crime.
Health Minister Danica Grujicic said six students and one teacher were still in hospital, with three in a critical condition.
Serbian students did not attend school on Wednesday afternoon. Friday, Saturday and Sunday have also been designated as days of mourning.
Violence in schools is a rare occurrence in Serbia. In February 2021, a female student stabbed a math teacher in the stomach at an elementary school near Smederevska Palanka.
According to the Small Arms Survey, Serbia has just over 39 firearms per 100 residents. The United States has an estimated 120 guns per capita.
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