DUBONA: The police arrested a suspect on Friday after eight persons were killed and 14 wounded in Serbia’s second mass shooting in just two days, in what President Aleksandar Vucic called a “terrorist attack” as he proposed tougher gun control laws..
The Balkan country was already reeling from a mass shooting on Wednesday, when authorities say a 13-year-old boy shot dead nine and wounded seven at a school in Belgrade before turning himself in.
Serbs had just begun three days of mourning on Friday for those victims as news broke of the second shooting, which authorities said began late on Thursday in the village of Dubona, 42 km (26 miles) south of Belgrade.
State broadcaster RTS said the suspect, a young man, had been involved in an altercation in a school yard. He left and then returned with an assault rifle and a handgun, opened fire and continued to shoot at people at random from a moving car. The suspect also fired at people in two other nearby villages before fleeing, authorities said. The police found him eventually hiding in his grandfather’s house, where they also discovered hand grenades, an automatic rifle and ammunition.
“The suspect UB, born in 2002, has been apprehended in the vicinity of the city of Kragujevac. He is suspected of killing eight persons and wounding 14 overnight,” Serbia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The police also arrested the suspect’s grandfather and uncle. Serbian Health Minister Danica Grujicic said many of the wounded had suffered multiple injuries and had undergone surgery, but she added that all were in a stable condition.
In a sombre national address, President Vucic said the gunman had been wearing a T-shirt with neo-Nazi symbols. He gave no further details about the shootings. He proposed a moratorium on gun permits regardless of weapon type, in what he called a “practical disarmament” of Serbia that would also include more frequent medical and psychological checks of gun owners.