Second gun slaughter hits Serbia as eight people are shot dead and 14 wounded in drive-by

Serbian police today arrested a suspect gunman who killed eight people and injured 14 others near the capital Belgrade last night – a day after a 13-year-old boy went on a killing spree at his school.

The 21-year-old suspect, identified only by his initials U.B., opened fire from a moving car on Thursday night, shooting his victims at random one by one as he drove through three villages, local media report.

An off-duty policeman and his sister were among those killed in the mass shooting near the town of Mladenovac, 26 miles south of Belgrade, reports state broadcaster RTS.

The gunman was arrested near the central town of Kragujevac, 60 miles south of Belgrade, after more than 600 officers launched a huge night-long manhunt.

The mass shooting comes on the heels of the worst school shooting in Serbia’s recent history, after Kosta Kecmanovic, 13, shot dead nine people, including eight fellow students, and injured seven at a school in Belgrade before turning himself in on Wednesday.

In the latest shooting, the suspect was involved in an altercation in a school yard on Thursday and left but then returned with an assault rifle and a handgun, local media report. 

The suspect opened fire and continued to shoot his victims at random one by one through three villages near the town of Mladenovac, 30 miles south of Belgrade, late on Thursday. 

One man in the village of Dubona said he heard gunshots late last night and came out of his home.

‘I could smell gunpowder. I heard noise from the direction of school. We saw people lying on the ground,’ said the man, who refused to give his name because he feared for his safety.

‘I heard some tak-tak-tak sounds,’ recalled Milan Prokic, a resident of Dubona, a village near the town of Mladenovac. Prokic said he first thought villagers were shooting to celebrate a childbirth, as is tradition in Serbia and the Balkans. 

‘But it wasn’t that. Shame, great shame,’ Prokic added. 

‘This is terrible for our state, this is a huge defeat. In two days so many … killed,’ said Ivan, a Dubona resident.

Worried relatives gathered outside the emergency medical centre in Belgrade, where at least eight injured people were hospitalised, N1 television reported. 

Around 600 Serbian police, including elite Special Antiterrorist Unit (SAJ) and Gendarmerie launched a manhunt following the shooting, setting up roadblocks around the villages.

Following the all-night manhunt, officers arrested the suspect in the town of Kragujevac.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic called the shooting a ‘terrorist act’, RTS reported.

The Balkan nation begins three days of official mourning on Friday following its first mass school shooting on Wednesday.

Kosta Kecmanovic, 13, confessed to opening fire on his screaming classmates inside their classroom in the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School, killing seven girls and a boy – all below the age of 14.

A security guard, identified as Dragon Vlahovic, in his early 50s, was also killed in the mass shooting, while a further six pupils and a history teacher were critically wounded in the attack on Wednesday morning.

The baby-faced teenager, who cannot be prosecuted because he is under the age of 14, was arrested by Serbian police in the school’s playground on Wednesday and led away with his face covered after he called police confessing to the murders.

Kecmanovic, described as a ‘star pupil’ who won prizes in maths, was armed with two guns and two petrol bombs and had drawn up plans for the massacre a month beforehand.

The plan included a list of children he wanted to kill and their classes and a map of the school layout, police said.

‘The sketch looks like something from a video game or a horror movie, which indicates that he planned in detail, by classes, who to liquidate,’ Belgrade’s police chief, Veselin Milic, said.

‘After the crime, he called the police. He worked out a plan for entering the school and leaving the school. He determined the priority targets,’ he added.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić said on Wednesday night that both the boy’s parents – both doctors – have been arrested, and that he is to be taken to a psychiatric institution. 

Terrified students hid under their desks amid ‘non-stop shooting’ at around 8.40am on Wednesday morning.

At least eight children and a security guard were killed in the gun rampage and there are fears that the death toll could rise even further, with some sustaining life-threatening injuries.

The shooter first killed a guard at the school in central Belgrade and then three students in a hallway, police said. 

He then entered a classroom – reportedly choosing it simply because it was close to the entrance – and opened fire again.

Kecmanovic then called police himself and as officers put handcuffs on him, he reportedly told local media he had shot his classmates ‘because I am a psychopath’.

Anxious parents rushed to the school after being told of the shooting, waiting for news of their children.

As mothers and fathers were told their children were among those killed, they staggered backwards in utter disbelief that their child who had left their home that morning was not coming back.

Their screams and wails tore through the silence, as many collapsed in grief at hearing the horrific fate of their children.

Two of the six children who were wounded in the attack are now fighting to stay alive after being shot in the neck and head. The injured teacher, Tatjana Stevanović, in her early 50s, was also ‘in danger’ after being shot in the stomach and hands.

Mass school shootings are extremely rare in Serbia and President Aleksandar Vucic called Wednesday’s tragedy ‘one of the most difficult days’ in recent history.

Serbia has an entrenched gun culture, especially in rural areas, but also strict gun control laws. Automatic weapons are illegal and over the years authorities have offered several amnesties to those who surrender them. 

After the school shooting in Belgrade, the Serbian government introduced a two-year ban on the issuing of new gun permits, a revision of existing permits and checks on how gun owners store their arms.

Still, the country, and the rest of Western Balkans, are awash with military-grade weapons and ordnance that remained in private hands after the wars of the 1990s.