Serbia’s second mass shooting in 48 hours leaves eight dead

At least eight people have been killed and 14 injured in Serbia in the country’s second such mass shooting in two days.

The shootings started late on Thursday when the attacker shot randomly at people in three villages near Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Belgrade.

A suspect was later arrested following an extensive manhunt, said to have involved more than 600 police officers. Photos from the scene showed officers stopping cars at checkpoints, while a helicopter, drones and multiple patrols were also used.

Police said the man, identified only by initials U.B., and said to have been born in 2002, was arrested near the town of Kragujevac, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Belgrade.

The shooting came a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns to kill eight fellow students and a guard at a school in Belgrade, at attack that shocked the Balkan country.

Speaking about the latest attack, Milan Prokic, a resident of Dubona, a village near the town of Mladenovac, said he first thought villagers were shooting to celebrate a childbirth, as is tradition in Serbia and the Balkans.

“But it wasn’t that. Shame, great shame,” he added.

Serbian interior minister Bratislav Gasic called Thursday’s shootings “a terrorist act,” state media reported.

Serbia had spent much of Thursday reeling from its first mass shooting in ten years. Students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, filled streets around the school in central Belgrade as they paid silent homage to slain peers.

Serbian teachers’ unions announced protests and strikes to warn about a crisis in the school system and demand changes.

The same day, authorities moved to boost gun control, as police urged citizens to lock up their guns and keep them away from children.

The government ordered a two-year moratorium on short-barrel guns, tougher control of people with guns and shooting grounds, and tougher sentences for people who enable minors to get hold of guns.

A registered gun owner in Serbia must be over 18, healthy, and have no criminal record. Weapons must be kept locked and separately from ammunition.

Though Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, Wednesday’s school shooting was the first in the country’s modern history. The last mass shooting before this week was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

The shooting on Wednesday morning in Vladislav Ribnikar primary school also left seven people hospitalised, six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, doctors said on Thursday morning.

Authorities have said the shooter, whom police identified as Kosta Kecmanovic, is too young to be charged and tried. He has been placed in a mental institution, while his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public security because his son got hold of the guns.

Gun culture is widespread in Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans. The region has among the highest numbers of guns per capita in Europe. Guns are often fired into the air at celebrations and the cult of the warrior is part of national identities.