Police block the street close to the village of Malo Orasje, simply outdoors the city of Mladenovac, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Serbia’s capital Belgrade, on May 05, 2023.

ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP by way of Getty Images

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ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP by way of Getty Images

Police block the street close to the village of Malo Orasje, simply outdoors the city of Mladenovac, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Serbia’s capital Belgrade, on May 05, 2023.

ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP by way of Getty Images

BELGRADE, Serbia — A shooter killed at the very least eight individuals and wounded 13 in a drive-by assault close to a city near Belgrade late Thursday, the second such mass killing in Serbia in two days, state tv reported.

The attacker shot randomly at individuals close to the city of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, the RTS report mentioned early Friday. Police had been on the lookout for a 21-year-old suspect who fled after the assault, the report mentioned.

The capturing got here a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s weapons in a rampage at a school in Belgrade that killed eight of his fellow college students and a faculty guard.

The bloodshed despatched shockwaves by a Balkan nation unused to mass murders.

Though Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the Nineteen Nineties, mass shootings are extraordinarily uncommon. Wednesday’s college capturing was the primary within the nation’s fashionable historical past. The final mass capturing earlier than this week was in 2013, when a conflict veteran killed 13 individuals in a central Serbian village.

Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic referred to as Thursday’s capturing “a terrorist act,” state media reported.

Special police and helicopter models have been despatched to the area in addition to ambulances, it added.

No different particulars had been instantly obtainable, and police had not issued any statements.

Earlier Thursday, Serbian college students, many carrying black and carrying flowers, stuffed streets across the college in central Belgrade as they paid silent homage to friends killed a day earlier. Thousands lined as much as lay flowers, gentle candles and depart toys to commemorate the 9 individuals who had been killed on Wednesday morning.

School kids collect to gentle candles for the victims close to the Vladislav Ribnikar college in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023.

Armin Durgut/AP

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School kids collect to gentle candles for the victims close to the Vladislav Ribnikar college in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023.

Armin Durgut/AP

The tragedy additionally sparked a debate in regards to the common state of the nation following a long time of crises and conflicts whose aftermath have created a state of everlasting insecurity and instability, together with deep political divisions.

Authorities on Thursday moved to spice up gun management, as police urged residents to lock up their weapons and maintain them away from kids.

Police have mentioned that the teenager used his father’s weapons to hold out the assault. He had deliberate it for a month, drawing sketches of lecture rooms and making lists of the youngsters he deliberate to kill, police mentioned on Wednesday.

The boy, who had visited capturing ranges along with his father and apparently had the code to his father’s secure, took two weapons from the secure the place they had been saved along with bullets, police mentioned on Wednesday.

The capturing on Wednesday morning in Vladislav Ribnikar main college additionally left seven individuals hospitalized — six kids and a trainer. One lady who was shot within the head stays in a life-threatening situation, and a boy is in critical situation with spinal accidents, docs mentioned on Thursday morning.

To assist individuals take care of the tragedy, authorities introduced they had been organising a helpline. Hundreds answered a name to donate blood for the wounded victims. A three-day mourning period will begin Friday morning.

A lady cries as individuals gentle candles for the victims close to the Vladislav Ribnikar college in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023.

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A lady cries as individuals gentle candles for the victims close to the Vladislav Ribnikar college in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023.

Armin Durgut/AP

Serbian academics’ unions introduced protests and strikes to warn a few disaster within the college system and demand modifications. Authorities shrugged off accountability, with some officers blaming Western affect.

The shooter, whom the police recognized as Kosta Kecmanovic, has not given any motive for his actions.

Upon coming into his college, Kecmanovic first killed the guard and three college students within the hallway. He then went to the historical past classroom the place he shot a trainer earlier than turning his gun on the scholars.

Kecmanovic then unloaded the gun within the college yard and referred to as the police himself, though they’d already acquired an alert from a faculty official. When he referred to as, Kecmanovic advised responsibility officers he was a “psychopath who needs to calm down,” police mentioned.

The kids killed Wednesday had been seven women and one boy. One of the women was a French citizen, France’s international ministry mentioned.

Authorities have mentioned that Kecmanovic is just too younger to be charged and tried. He has been positioned in a psychological establishment, whereas his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public safety as a result of his son acquired maintain of the weapons.

“I think we are all guilty. I think each one of us has some responsibility, that we allowed some things we should not allow,” mentioned Zoran Sefik, a Belgrade resident, throughout Wednesday night’s vigil close to the college.

Jovan Lazovic, one other Belgrade resident, mentioned he was not stunned: “It was a matter of days when something like this could happen, having in mind what is happening in the world and here,” he mentioned.

Gun tradition is widespread in Serbia and elsewhere within the Balkans: The area has among the many highest numbers of weapons per capita in Europe. Guns are sometimes fired into the air at celebrations and the cult of the warrior is a part of nationwide identities.

Experts have repeatedly warned of the hazard posed by the variety of weapons in a extremely divided nation like Serbia, the place convicted conflict criminals are glorified and violence in opposition to minority teams typically goes unpunished. They additionally word that a long time of instability stemming from the conflicts of the Nineteen Nineties, in addition to ongoing financial hardship, might set off such outbursts.

“We have had too much violence for too long,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin advised N1 tv. “Children copy models. We need to eliminate negative models … and create a different system of values.”