3rd May, 2023
The Serbia police have arrested the father of the 13-year-old teenager, who shot nine people dead on Wednesday in a Belgrade elementary school.
Eight students and a security guard were dead after the shooting at an elementary school in the capital Belgrade, while another six pupils and a teacher were injured in the attack and have been taken to hospital.
The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs had said they were informed at 8.40 a.m. local time (2.40 a.m. ET) that a school shooting had happened at the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School in Vračar, an upscale area of the Serbian capital.
Interior Minister Bratislav Gašic sid the boy, who was a student at the school, “managed to get hold of those two guns and three magazines full of 15 bullets each”.
Gašic said legal measures would be taken against the father.
The schoolboy’s father has been detained on suspicion of aggravated endangering of public safety, Serbian state media Tanjug said, citing a statement by the prosecutor’s office.
Earlier, one of the children who sustained life-threatening injuries is said to be undergoing surgery.
Reuters reports that one of the parents, Milan Milosevic said his daughter was in the class where the gun was fired.
He said her daughter managed to escape, as the teenage attacker first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly.
“I saw the security guard lying under the table. I saw two girls with blood on their shirts. They say he (the shooter) was quiet and a good pupil. He recently joined their class,” added Milosevic, who rushed to the school after the shooting.
Belgrade’s Police Chief Veselin Milić told a news conference that the shooter called the police himself and told them what he did and waited in the schoolyard to be arrested.