9 killed, 7 injured in Serbian school shooting

Belgrade: Nine people were killed and seven others injured on Wednesday after a 14-year-old boy allegedly opened fire in an elementary school in Serbia, according to the interior ministry and local media.

According to the press release of the interior ministry, the police were “informed that this morning at 8:40 a.m., a shooting occurred at the Vladislav Ribnikar” elementary school in the Municipality of Vracar, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The police dispatched all available patrols, immediately went to the field, and arrested the suspected minor, a student of the seventh grade, who, as is suspected, fired several shots from his father’s gun in the direction of the students and security of this school,” the press release said.

The interior ministry said that six severely injured people are being treated at hospital.

According to RTS, Serbia’s public broadcaster, a security guard and eight kids lost their lives; one teacher and three children are at the Emergency Medical Centre in Belgrade, while three more children are at the children’s hospital.

“The school is closed. Something like this has never been recorded in the history of Belgrade schools,” Milan Nedeljkovic, president of the Municipality of Vracar, told RTS.