At least nine people were killed in a shooting at a primary school in Belgrade, eight students and a caretaker at the facility. 6 other children and a teacher were injured.
According to the Tanjug agency, which cites Interior Ministry sources, the shooting took place around 8:40 a.m. (same Italian time) at the Vladislav Ribnikar school in the central Vracar district of the Serbian capital.
This was announced by the Serbian government three days of national mourning, May 5-7, to commemorate the nine victims of this morning’s massacre. This was announced by the Minister of Education Branko Ružic during a press conference at which the The head of the Belgrade Police Department Veselin Milić revealed the details of the tragedy that shook the Serbian capital.
Kosta K. is the name of the 14-year-old boy, a seventh-grade primary school student, who committed the massacre at the Belgrade school. “He had been planning his act for at least a month.” said the chief of police of the capital Veselin Milic during the press conference. Milic added that the boy He had a map of the school and a list of classmates he was supposed to kill. During the In his speech to the media, Milić said that he has been working as a police officer for more than 25 years, but has never seen such a case.
It was the multiple killer himself, Milic added, who called the police and told them he had shot many people, but did not explain the reason for the massacre, which was committed with his father’s nine-caliber pistol. The boy also had four Molotov cocktails.
Serbian police also arrested the boy’s father. The man legally owned the gun used in the shooting, but the Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic, he announced that legal action will also be taken against him. “The father of the man who committed this serious, horrific crime has been arrested. Both guns found, one in a backpack and the other used to commit the crime, are rightfully in the father’s possession. The man has several guns and claimed they were locked in a safe with a code, but it’s clear the young man knew him,” Gasic explained at the press conference. Belgrade police chief Veselin Milic told CNN that the boy had a 9mm pistol, another small caliber and a Molotov cocktail in a pocket. Apparently, the father used to take his son to the shooting range.
The head of the Belgrade district of Vracar, Milan Nedeljkovic, told the press late in the morning that the school guards had been killed and several students and a history teacher injured. “He wanted to prevent this tragedy and died,” he said, looking at the caretaker, “the drama would probably have been worse if this man hadn’t been standing in front of the boy who was shooting”.
According to some media outlets, the boy, who is described as kind and diligent in his studies, appears to have been the victim of abuse and ridicule from other schoolmates. The Belgrade massacre has reignited controversy and debates about the intensification of episodes of violence and intolerance in schools in Serbia, also linked to the increasing prevalence of drugs and sexual harassment.
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Filming this morning in a primary school in Belgrade
In front of the school, among the parents who rushed to recover their children, even the famous one Serbian basketball player Duško Savanović, former Dinamo Sassari player and TV presenter, Zoran Kesic.
Kesić told Serbian media that his son also attends this school: “I don’t know what to say, it’s terrible, I’m very angry,” he told Telegraf, adding that people were very scared and themselves many parents gathered near the school. “I don’t know exactly what happened, I can’t give you any more information because I don’t know. All I see is that the parents have gathered, everyone is scared, the children are leaving school crying, the teachers are upset. It’s really terrible what happened.”
The witness
The mother of a little girl who witnessed the shooting at a primary school in Belgrade recounted the moment her daughter heard the shots. That’s what Astrid Merlini reported The daughter thought it was fireworks, but then saw the guard collapse under the bullets. “When my daughter saw the guard fall, she got scared and immediately ran to class,” she explained. So it was she who told the teacher that there was a shooting. “The teacher immediately protected the children by locking them in the classroom,” Merlini added. Many of the students then fled under the desks.
