Serbia struggles to comprehend first school shooting
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People leaving flowers and lighting candles for the victims in front of the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in Belgrade, Serbia.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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BELGRADE - Shocked Serbians mourned the nine victims of their nation’s first mass school shooting on Thursday, while teachers demanded better security and two wounded pupils fought for their lives.
The suspected shooter, a 13-year-old boy, surrendered on Wednesday, police said, after taking two handguns belonging to his father and killing eight pupils and a security guard in their school
A teacher and six pupils were also wounded in the shooting, with two still in critical condition.
“The girl who underwent an urgent surgery yesterday due to head injuries... remains in critical condition and in intensive care,” Dr Sinisa Ducic, the acting director at the city’s Tirsova hospital, told reporters.
Dr Milika Asanin, director of Belgrade’s university hospital, said the condition of a severely wounded boy treated there had improved, but he was still in critical condition, Tanjug news agency reported.
The others were stable.
The unprecedented killing prompted the government to announce tougher curbs on gun ownership and to declare three days of national mourning from Friday.
Hundreds of schoolchildren with candles and flowers gathered for a vigil on Thursday evening in streets around the school, while churches planned memorial prayers.
“There are no words,” said Ms Aleksandra Zizic, a Belgrade schoolteacher in shock. “We have spent the day yesterday with children to try and rationalise... what happened.”
Drug tests on the teenage suspect, taken late on Wednesday at Belgrade’s Military Medical Academy to see if he was under the influence, were negative, Tanjug reported, quoting the suspect’s family lawyer Irina Borovic.
Dozens of high school teachers rallied in front of the Education Ministry in downtown Belgrade on Thursday, demanding improvements to school security and the education system.
“I have a child of that age,” said Mr Ninoslav Petrovic, a teacher and a union activist. “This cannot be justified. School is an institution where such things must not happen.”
Mr Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s Foreign Minister and head of the co-ruling Socialist Party, said Education Minister Branko Ruzic, a Socialist, was ready to resign but said that would not address the social problem raised.
“The question is whether it will happen again, whether someone will copy it,” he told local TV.
Mr Ruzic was not immediately available for comment.
President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday announced a moratorium on new gun licences other than for hunting, a revision of existing permits, enhanced surveillance of shooting ranges and of how members of the public store their weapons.
The Serbian Interior Ministry told gun owners on Thursday to keep their weapons empty and locked up prior to police checks on storage cabinets and safes.
The suspected shooter is under Serbia’s age of criminal responsibility. He has been in a psychiatric institution for an evaluation and his father arrested.
Police officers walking with a shooting suspect out of school after he opened fire on other students and staff at a school in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 3, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ms Borovic, the lawyer, said the father, whom she named as Vladimir Kecmanovic, would appear in court on Friday to face charges of endangering public safety.
She said she would address the public after that. REUTERS
