Tens of hundreds of protesters have marched by means of Belgrade after mass shootings left 17 individuals useless in Serbia.

People gathered in entrance of the parliament constructing yesterday earlier than submitting previous the government‘s headquarters and on to a motorway bridge over the Sava River, which they blocked.

Commuters heading house for the night have been compelled to show round to keep away from getting caught.

Protesters say populist president Aleksandar Vucic and his authorities have created an environment of hopelessness and division that not directly result in two mass shootings in as many days final week.

On May 3, a 13-year-old boy used his father’s gun to open hearth at his college in central Belgrade. The subsequent day, a 20-year-old man randomly fired at individuals in a rural space south of the capital.

The assaults left 17 individuals useless – a lot of them youngsters – and 21 wounded.

At the entrance of the protest a big banner was held saying: ‘Serbia Against Violence’.

Pro-government media criticised the bridge blockade, with the Novosti day by day newspaper reporting that ‘harassment has begun, hooligans have blocked the bridge’.

But opposition politician Srdjan Milivojevic instructed tv station N1 that ‘it is a battle for survival’.

He mentioned: ‘If the president doesn’t perceive his individuals, it is time he resigned.’

Police didn’t intervene.

Ahead of the protest, Mr Vucic, who holds practically all of the levers of energy, mentioned it amounted to ‘violence in politics’ and the ‘harassment’ of residents.

But he mentioned police wouldn’t become involved ‘until individuals’s lives are in peril’.

‘What provides them the best to dam different individuals’s regular lives?’ mentioned Mr Vucic, who accused opposition leaders of ‘abusing the tragedy’ following the shootings that deeply rattled the nation and prompted requires change.

‘They are harassing residents and never permitting them to journey,’ Mr Vucic insisted. ‘But we do not prefer to beat protesters, like France and Germany do.’

The protest got here virtually every week after one other rally in Belgrade that additionally drew hundreds and demonstrations in smaller cities and cities across the nation.

At that protest, demonstrators demanded the resignations of presidency ministers and the withdrawal of broadcast licences for 2 non-public TV stations that are near the state and promote violence.

They usually host convicted battle criminals and crime figures on their programmes.

Opposition events have accused Mr Vucic’s populist authorities of fuelling intolerance and hate speech whereas taking maintain of all establishments.

Mr Vucic has denied this.

He has known as his personal rally for May 26 in Belgrade that he mentioned could be the ‘greatest ever’.

‘We don’t organise spontaneous rallies to be able to play with individuals’s feelings,’ Mr Vucic insisted.

‘Ours can be a rally of unity, once we will announce vital political choices.’

Mr Vucic additionally instructed reporters that residents had handed in additional than 9,000 weapons since police introduced a one-month amnesty for individuals to give up unregistered weapons and ammunition or face doable jail sentences after that interval.

Serbia is estimated to be among the many high international locations in Europe relating to the variety of weapons per capita, a lot of them left over from the wars within the Nineties.

Other anti-gun measures after the shootings embrace a ban on new gun licences, stricter controls on gun house owners and capturing ranges, and more durable punishments for the unlawful possession of weapons.

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