Three days of mourning in Serbia following school shooting

The Serbian government has announced three days of official mourning following a shooting at a Belgrade school by a 14-year-old boy, which left nine dead and seven injured.

The shooting happened just after 8:30 in the morning and it is believed the 14-year-old, who had been planning the attack for some time and had a “kill list”, open fired on other children and teaching staff. Police and ambulances quickly blocked the area around the school while six children and a teacher were wounded and transferred to hospitals.

Those who died included eight children aged 12-14 and the school guard.

The suspect was then arrested, as was his father, according to Veselin Milić of the Belgrade police department.

According to official sources, the suspect took two of his father’s licensed handguns and four Molotov cocktails to the school premises, where he proceeded to shoot the guard, teachers and students before calling the police on himself.

According to the father, the weapons were held in a safe, but the child “must have known the combination”, said Milić.

Milić went on to confirm that the school shooting had been planned “for over a month”, and during the search of the family’s apartment, police found papers with drawings of the school’s grounds and a list of children the suspect wanted to target.

In a press conference, Education Minister Branko Ružić said that the boy may not have been bullied, but an incident in an acting school he attended left him with a split lip. He added that the system has not failed the boy, noting that Serbia is “regretfully part of the world where these things seem to be happening more often”.

“The disastrous and cancerous effect of the internet, video games and Western values is evident. We all understand that we need a big turnaround. Stricter measures, but also systemic solutions”, he added.

The comment that “Western values” were somehow responsible for the incident sparked furious reactions on social media both locally and internationally.

Health Minister Danica Grujičić said it was “the most frightening experience” in her 40-year career in medicine.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Serbia, starting from Friday to Sunday. The Institute for mental health will open telephone support lines, and other measures are being considered to help in handling the aftermath of the shooting.

(EURACTIV.rs | Bojana Zimonjić Jelisavac)