Serbia: eight killed in second mass shooting in days, with attacker on the run
Police searching for attacker who fired automatic weapon from a moving vehicle in town south of Belgrade, injuring a further 13
An ambulance leaves the location of a mass shooting in Malo Orasje, near the town of Mladenovac, Serbia, on Thursday night. Photograph: Antonio Bronić/Reuters
Staff and agencies
Fri 5 May 2023 02.37 BSTFirst published on Fri 5 May 2023 02.16 BST
At least eight people have been killed and 13 injured in a shooting near a Serbian town about 60km (37 miles) south of Belgrade, state-run media has reported, just one day after a school shooting also saw eight killed in the capital.
The shooting occurred late on Thursday near Mladenovac when the attacker opened fire with an automatic weapon from a moving vehicle and then fled, state broadcaster
RTS television reported. Seven of the injured are in a critical condition.
Police searching for the suspect, believed to be a 21-year-old man, have surrounded an area where he is believed to be hiding, RTS reported. A heavy police presence in the area saw helicopters and drones flying overhead as officers searched amid difficult terrain.
Bratislav Gašić, the minister of internal affairs, called the attack “an act of terrorism”.
Local reports suggested a police officer and his sister were among the dead, shot after an argument broke out in the village of Malo Orasje, near Mladenovac. It is believed shootings occurred at multiple locations.
On Wednesday,
a 13-year-old student shot dead eight fellow pupils and a security guard in a Belgrade primary school, an attack that shocked the Balkan country.
Police named Wednesday’s shooter as Kosta Kecmanović and said he had been a pupil at the school since 2019. They said he had used two of his father’s guns for the shooting and may have been plotting the attack for a month.
The head of Belgrade police, Veselin Milić, said the teenager also had two petrol bombs and “made a list of kids he planned to kill and their classes”. Milić identified the dead pupils as seven girls and a boy born between 2009 and 2011.
Kecmanović is too young to face criminal charges and will be placed in a psychiatric institution. His parents have also been arrested.
With Agence France-Presse