A teenage boy opened fire at a school in central Belgrade, killing eight children and a school guard. Six more children and a teacher were injured and taken to the hospital. The shooter, identified by his initials KK, used his father’s gun. He was a student at the school and was born in 2009. Police arrested him in the school yard.
The shooting took place at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school around 8:40 a.m. Police received a call about the shooting. Local media footage showed police removing the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.
Mass shootings in Serbia and the Balkan region are extremely rare. In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people in a central Serbian village. Experts have warned of the number of weapons left over in the country after the wars of the 1990s. Decades-long instability stemming from conflicts and ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.
Police sealed off the blocks around the school, in the center of Belgrade. Primary schools in Serbia have eight grades. Parents of students rushed to the school to check on their children. One parent reported that her daughter was in a history class when the shooting took place and was safe.
