Serbia: Drive-by shooting kills eight, injures 13, says state media

At least eight people were murdered and 13 others were injured in a drive-by shooting late on Thursday near a town close to Belgrade, according to official media. This was Serbia’s second such mass killing in two days.

According to an early Friday RTS report, the assailant fired shots at random at persons close to the town of Mladenovac, which is located about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the city. According to the story, police were seeking for a suspect, age 21, who escaped following the assault.

Helicopters flew over the site, there was a significant police presence, and several ambulances flocked to the scene.

The shooting came a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns in a rampage at a school in Belgrade that killed eight of his fellow students and a school guard.

The bloodshed sent shockwaves through a Balkan nation unused to mass murders.

Though Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, mass shootings are extremely rare. Wednesday’s school shooting was the first in the country’s modern history. The last mass shooting before this week was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic called Thursday’s shooting “a terrorist act,” state media reported.

Special police and helicopter units have been sent to the region as well as ambulances, it added.

No other details were immediately available, and police had not issued any statements.

Earlier Thursday, Serbian students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, filled streets around the school in central Belgrade, as they paid silent homage to peers, killed a day earlier. Thousands lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave toys to commemorate the nine people who were killed on Wednesday morning.

The tragedy also sparked a debate about the general state of the nation following decades of crises and conflicts whose aftermath has created a state of permanent insecurity and instability, along with deep political divisions.

Authorities on Thursday moved to boost gun control, as police urged citizens to lock up their guns and keep them away from children.

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