Serbia grieves over deadly school shooting

BELGRADE — A 13-year-old teenager gunned down eight fellow students and a security guard in a Belgrade school on Wednesday in a planned attack, sending shock waves through the nation.

The incident rocked the Balkan nation, with President Aleksandar Vucic calling it "one of the most difficult days" in Serbia's recent history.

"A team of psychologists and others … were immediately called to provide adequate support to students, employees and parents during this traumatic period," Education Minister Branko Ruzic told media.

Serbia will observe three days of mourning, Ruzic added, while a minute of silence will be observed in schools across the country on Thursday.

Using two handguns that belonged to his father, the teenage boy fired first at the guard and three girls in a hallway, and then shot his teacher and classmates in a history lesson, police said. The teacher and six students were hospitalized, some with life-threatening injuries.

Two pupils wounded in Serbia's first mass school shooting were in critical condition on Thursday, health officials said.

Veselin Milic, head of the Belgrade police, said the attacker had two guns and two petrol bombs and had planned everything carefully. "He even had … names of children he wanted to kill and their classes," he told a news conference. Serbian police on Thursday urged citizens to lock up their guns.

Vucic announced a moratorium on new gun licenses other than for hunting, revision of existing permits and surveillance of shooting ranges, and how civilians store their weapons.

The shooter, who gave himself up to the police and is below Serbia's age of criminal responsibility at 13, will be placed in a psychiatric institution, Vucic told reporters, adding that both his father and mother had been arrested.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the suspect's father had held the guns legally.

" (The boy)… first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly," parent Milan Milosevic told broadcaster N1. Milosevic's daughter was in the classroom when the attacker burst in, but she escaped. The boy had asked for a transfer to another class where he had three friends.

Thousands of people gathered in the school's neighborhood in the evening to lay flowers and light candles.

"I cannot stop thinking about it. I have children and I hope that we will never see such images in the future," said Aleksandar Arandjelovic, a lawyer who came to pay respects.

Agencies Via Xinhua