“After an extensive search, members of the Interior Ministry detained UB, born in 2002 in the Kragujevac region, central Serbia,” the ministry said in a statement.
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“He is suspected of having killed (…) eight people with an automatic weapon and of having injured 14 others”, states the ministry’s note.
All the injured were hospitalized.
The attack happened on Thursday night near Mladenovac, south of Belgrade, when a 21-year-old man opened fire with an automatic weapon from a moving vehicle before fleeing, state television channel RTS reported.
The shooter attacked three points in the region, according to local press.
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The action deepened the shock in Serbia, still shaken by the massacre carried out on Wednesday (3) by a 13-year-old teenager at a school in the center of Belgrade, where eight students and a security guard died.
Security forces isolated the area of the attack and almost 600 police officers were mobilized, including members of the counter-terrorism unit.
The highway connecting the towns of Malo Orasje and Dubona, the scene of the shooting, was blocked.
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Relatives of victims gathered outside a hospital in Belgrade where at least eight injured people were taken.
Health Minister Danica Grjuicic visited the site. Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the action was a “terrorist act,” according to RTS.
A country in shock
The shooter's arrest coincided with the beginning of three days of mourning decreed by the government following the massacre at a Belgrade elementary school.
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In addition to the nine fatal victims, six students and a teacher were injured in Wednesday's attack. Two people are in critical condition and have already undergone several surgeries, according to medical sources.
The shooter was detained shortly after the massacre in the school area, where he awaited the arrival of police officers. He was taken to a psychiatric hospital.
The teenager's father, a renowned doctor and owner of the weapon used, was arrested and must give a statement to the court. The mother was also questioned.
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Gun violence in schools is rare in Serbia, a country of seven million people with almost 765.000 registered weapons.
The Ministry of the Interior asked gun owners to keep them in closed places and warned that it could seize weapons from anyone who does not follow instructions.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who called the attack “one of the most difficult days in the country's contemporary history,” also called for strengthening gun control measures and proposed a two-year moratorium on granting new licenses.
The Vladislav Ribnikar school, which has students aged 7 to 15 and is located in the center of Belgrade, remained closed on Thursday.
Hundreds of people came to the scene and left flowers, toys or candles at a makeshift memorial.
Tributes were also organized in other Serbian cities, such as Nis and Kragujevac, in the Croatian capital Zagreb or in Banja Luka, the administrative center of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia.
(With AFP)
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