A police spokesman told a news conference that the eight children killed were seven girls and one boy. He also shot a security guard with his father’s gun.
Four other boys and two girls were injured. A girl is in critical condition, the BBC said, citing Serbia’s health minister. A teacher was also injured and is in hospital. Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the central district of Vracar, where the Wladislav Ribnikar school is located, said doctors were fighting to save the teacher’s life.
The 53-year-old teacher, who taught history, suffered injuries to her abdomen and both hands, according to the university hospital. Media reports said a bad grade in history could trigger the attack. Therefore, it is assumed that the target of the attack could be this history teacher.
perpetrator arrested
The Ministry of the Interior had previously confirmed that the alleged perpetrator had been arrested. He is a 14 year old student. He is said to have opened fire on his former teacher with his father’s pistol. He committed the attack at 8:40 am in a classroom, and investigations into his motives are still ongoing.
As the Minister of Education, Branko Ruzic, confirmed, there was a complaint of bullying some time ago, whose victim was the aggressor, but which was not linked to the primary school, but to a private acting school. In Serbia, primary education lasts eight years. You start school at age seven.
AP/Darko Vojinovic Nine people died in the attack and seven others were injured
Police said the seventh grader was arrested in the schoolyard after calling the police and confessing to the crime. He also had Molotov cocktails with him and planned the attack in advance. “He even had the names of children he wanted to kill and their classes,” the police spokesman said at the press conference.
Three days of mourning declared in Serbia
Education Minister Ruzic called the 14-year-old’s act “bestial”. The Serbian government had “very emotional and serious conversations” with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Psychologists were contacted to support those affected. A three-day period of mourning will be declared in Serbia from Friday to Sunday. There will also be a minute of silence on Thursday before classes start.
AP/Darko Vojinovic Police cordoned off the school grounds
isolated school grounds
Police immediately sent all available patrols to the school in the Vracar district of central Belgrade, the ministry said. Video footage showed worried parents waiting for their children near the school. The police cordoned off the school building.
Killed after attack on Serbian school
Several people were killed and injured when shots rang out at a primary school in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. According to TV station N1, students and a school security guard were among the fatalities. The alleged perpetrator, a 14-year-old student, has since been arrested.
Such attacks are comparatively rare in Serbia, which has very strict gun laws. However, after wars and riots in the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons are circulating in the Western Balkans.