Eight children and security guard dead after shooting in Belgrade with student, 14, arrested
3 May 2023, 10:51 | Updated: 3 May 2023, 10:52
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after eight students and a security guard were shot dead in Serbia's capital Belgrade.
Another six pupils and a teacher were injured in the attack at the Vladislav Ribnikar school in central Belgrade.
The suspect is alleged to have used his father’s gun in the shooting, officials have said.
“I saw kids running out from the school, screaming. Parents came, they were in panic. Later I heard three shots,” a girl who attends a high school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar told state TV RTS.
Officers said they received a call about the shooting at the school around 8.40am (7.40am BST).
A student apparently fired several shots from his father's gun at other students and the school guard, according to police. The motive for the shooting is unclear.
Terrified parents have arrived to the school trying to find their children.
Local media footage from the scene showed commotion outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.
Mass shootings in Serbia are extremely rare. Experts, however, have repeatedly warned about the number of weapons left over in the country after the wars of the 1990s.
Police sealed off the blocks around the Vladislav Ribnikar school, in the centre of Belgrade.
