Eight minors and a security guard have died in a Belgrade school when a 14-year-old student at that institution shot his classmates and the teaching and security personnel this morning, according to local media. Six children and the teacher are being treated in hospitals in Belgrade.
The police have arrested the alleged perpetrator, who would have shot with his father’s gun, against his teacher and then against the students in his class. The teacher was in critical condition and a minor with an impact on the head was undergoing emergency surgery before the latest death balance was known, according to the local N1 channel. The rest of the injured have also been hospitalized.
The accident occurred at 8 in the morning at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school, in the central Vracar neighborhood of Belgrade. According to witnesses, the security guard tried to prevent the shooting and died.
There is little information about the alleged perpetrator, since as he is a minor, his identity is protected. However, we know that he was a student at the educational center, that he was born in 2009 and that, according to the father of a student interviewed by local television N1, “he was calm and a good student” and “he had recently enrolled in class.” .
The Serbian Ministry of the Interior has notified in a statement that the local police “has sent all available patrols” to the scene, where there are already officers with helmets and bulletproof vests who have cordoned off the area around the school.
Several families of the children who were going to the class where the tragedy occurred have gathered on Svetozar Markovića street, and are waiting for news in front of the school.
Police have opened an investigation into the motives for the shooting but no further details have been released. The Serbian authorities will give a press conference this morning on the occasion of the tragedy.
Mass shootings are not common in Serbia, because the laws governing weapons are very strict. However, as in other Western Balkan countries, there are thousands of illegal weapons that were never delivered after the wars of the 1990s. In 2019, almost 40% of the Serbian population owned a weapon.
