According to reports from the public TV broadcaster RTS, the alleged perpetrator had used a rapid-fire weapon. He then fled and the police launched a massive manhunt. At the scene of the crime, the road connections to the villages of Orasja and Dubona near Mladenovac, around 50 kilometers south of the capital Belgrade, were closed. Numerous police and rescue vehicles were deployed, and helicopters circled the area.
Special units are looking for fugitives
According to the daily newspaper “Blic” (online edition), people were sitting on benches in the center of the village of Dubona when the gunman opened fire from the car. In a live ticker on Friday morning, the newspaper showed images of vehicles from special police units at dawn looking for the fugitive. Similar scenes could be seen on RTS – also in a live ticker.
Interior Minister speaks of “terrorist act”
The background of the fact is unclear. Relatives gathered in front of a hospital in Belgrade, where several of the injured had been taken, as reported by the TV station N1. In April 2013, not far from Mladenovac, a villager shot dead 13 people. Among the dead were members of his family and neighbors.
Gun attack in Serbia
Eight people were killed and 13 others injured in a gun attack in Serbia on Thursday evening. The attack happened near the town of Mladenovac, around 60 kilometers south of the capital, Belgrade.
According to unconfirmed media reports, a police officer and his sister were among the victims. Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic went to the scene of the incident that night. He described the act as a “terrorist act”, without giving any further details.
Only shortly after massacre in school
Serbia was shaken by a gun attack on Wednesday, in which a 13-year-old student shot dead eight children and a security guard at his school in the capital. Of seven other injured people, two were still in mortal danger on Thursday.
The 13-year-old was arrested. He had called the police himself. According to the investigators, he had drawn up a detailed plan and a death list before his crime. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The shooter’s father, a recognized doctor who owned the murder weapon, was arrested. The mother was also taken into custody.
Stricter gun laws announced
Comparable acts with firearms are extremely rare in Serbia, it said. After Wednesday’s tragedy, President Aleksandar Vucic spoke of “one of the most difficult days” in recent history. In a speech, he promised stricter gun controls and a two-year moratorium on the issuance of gun documents.
The school was still locked down on Thursday. Hundreds of people laid flowers and toys in front of the building and lit candles to commemorate the victims. In the Croatian capital of Zagreb and in Banja Luka, the capital of the Serbian republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, people commemorated the dead with flowers and candles.
Funeral services were held in the Belgrade churches, and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, called the shooting spree at the school a “disaster such as our nation and our homeland has never seen.” A three-day national mourning has been in effect since Friday.
