At least eight people were killed and 13 injured in a drive-by shooting in Serbia | world News

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The shooting comes less than 48 hours after a 13-year-old boy opened fire at a primary school, killing eight children and a security guard in Belgrade.

Fri 5 May 2023 04:46, United Kingdom

At least eight people were killed and 13 injured in a drive-by shooting in Serbia as police chased the gunman, state TV reported.

Radio Television Serbia reported that the attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot indiscriminately at people near the town of Mladenovac, 50 km south of the capital, Belgrade, on Thursday night.

It added that police were searching for a 21-year-old suspect identified as UB in a manhunt dubbed Operation Whirlwind.

The shooting comes less than 48 hours after nine people shot dead a 13-year-old boy at a school in Belgrade before he turned himself in.

Serbia’s Interior Minister, Bratislav Jasic, called the latest shooting an “act of terrorism,” Serbian news website Telegraph reported, without providing further details.

According to local media, after a late-night argument in a schoolyard near Mladenovac, the suspect returned with an assault rifle, opened fire and continued shooting people at random from a moving vehicle.

No further details were immediately available and the police did not make any statements.

A Reuters witness saw heavily armed policemen setting up a checkpoint and checking oncoming traffic near the village of Dobona, not far from Mladenovac.

Image: Police manning a checkpoint in Dobona

A helicopter, drones and multiple police patrols also searched for the suspect among the hills and forests around Dobona.

Eight children and a security guard were killed in a shooting on Wednesday at Vladislav Ribnekar Elementary School in Belgrade.

Police said the 13-year-old used two handguns he had taken from his father and planned the attack for a month. They added that the boy drew diagrams of classrooms and made lists of children he planned to kill.

The shooting also led to the hospitalization of seven people – six children and a teacher. On Thursday morning, doctors said a girl who was shot in the head is still in a life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries.

The country’s first mass school shooting prompted the government to announce stricter rules on gun possession.

Read more: Two children remain in critical condition after school shooting

Serbia’s president has announced a moratorium on new gun licenses except for hunting licenses, and a review of existing permits, with more monitoring of shooting ranges and how people store their weapons.

Police urged citizens to lock up their weapons and keep them away from the children.

Thousands of people gathered in central Belgrade on Thursday to lay flowers and light candles in memory of those killed in Wednesday morning’s shooting.

Gun culture pervades Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans: the region is among the highest in Europe in terms of the number of firearms per capita.

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