The school shooting in Belgrade

Nine dead after shooting at school in Belgrade - student arrested  

Nine people, including eight children, have been killed since a teenage boy opened fire at a school in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, reports AP. The details of the victims have been confirmed by the police.  

The boy, a seventh-grade student, was arrested in the school yard after the incident. 

The first confirmed fatality was a security guard at the school. It was then announced that eight students had also been killed. Another at least six students and a teacher are injured, writes Reuters. 

 

A woman outside the police cordons. Darko Vojinovic / AP  

Great concern at the school: "I asked where my child was" 

Scores of worried parents have gathered outside the school in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, where a student shot dead nine people on Wednesday, AP reports. Milan Milosevic says that his daughter goes to school and that he rushed there when he heard what happened. 

- I asked where my child was, but at first no one could answer. Then she called and we were told that she got out, he says to the news channel N1. 

He says that the daughter said that the shooter first shot at a teacher and then at students who took cover under their desks. 

- She says he was a quiet guy and a good student, says Milosevic.  

The suspected perpetrator, a 14-year-old, has been arrested. 

Students outside the school after the crime. Darko Vojinovic / AP  

The school shooting in Belgrade First mass shooting in Serbia since 2013 

In Serbia, as in the Balkan region as a whole, mass shootings are very rare. This is what AP writes in connection with the school shooting in Belgrade on Wednesday where nine people were killed.  

The last similar incident in the country took place in 2013, when a former soldier shot dead 13 people.  

However, experts have regularly warned that the large quantities of weapons in circulation in the region after the wars of the 1990s, combined with the political instability and difficult economic times, mean that the risk of an act is high.  

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after the shooting at the school.