By Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasović
BELGRADE (Reuters) – A 14-year-old boy shot his teacher in a Belgrade classroom on Wednesday morning before opening fire on other students and security guards, killing eight students and a security guard, the interior ministry said.
Milan Milosevic, the father of one of the pupils at Vladislav Ribnicar Primary School, said his daughter was in the class where the gun was fired.
“I managed to escape. (The boy)…he first shot the teacher and then started shooting indiscriminately,” Milosevic told N1.
Milan Nedeljkovic, the mayor of the Frakar Central District where the school is located, said that doctors are fighting to save the teacher’s life.
The Interior Ministry statement said eight children and a security guard were killed, and six children were taken to hospital with the teacher.
Police said a seventh-grade student was arrested.
Milosevic added that he had rushed to the school after the shooting.
Officers wearing helmets and flak jackets cordoned off the area around the school.
“I saw children running outside the school screaming. Parents came and were in a panic. Later I heard three shots,” a girl who teaches at a secondary school next to Vladislav Rybnekar told state television.
The police said in a statement that the victims are being treated and the motives behind the shooting are being investigated.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Serbia, which has very strict gun laws. But the Western Balkans is awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons in the aftermath of the wars and turmoil of the 1990s.
The Serbian authorities have issued several amnesties to their owners for surrendering or registering illegal weapons.