Eight students and a security guard were killed in an armed attack at the Vladislav Ribnikar school in central Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The Serbian Interior Ministry said a 14-year-old student from the same school suspected of carrying out the attack was arrested. Six other students from the school and a teacher were injured and taken to hospital. The teacher and a girl were described as being in serious condition.
The exact time of the attack is not yet clear, but police said they received calls for intervention around 8:40. A large number of law enforcement officers arrived on the spot and prevented access to the area. Meanwhile, many parents of the students had gathered in front of the school. In the Serbian system, Vladislav Ribnikar is a primary school, ie attended by children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 14.
Local media have collected some testimonies from parents and students present at the time of the attack: the boy allegedly shot the history teacher first and then other students, who in the meantime tried to take refuge under desks.
Armed attacks of this kind in Serbia are quite rare, especially in a school: there are very strict laws on the possession of weapons in the country, but at the same time it is known that there are a lot of them, left in circulation after the wars in the area of the Balkans in the 1990s. The last similar shooting took place in 2013, and a former soldier was responsible who killed 13 people.
