School shooting leaves one dead and five injured after boy, 14, opens fire in Serbia
- A security guard has been killed and five pupils injured by a gunman in Serbia
- The suspect, a seventh grade student, was arrested, police in Belgrade said
A security guard has been killed and at least five pupils injured after a 14-year old boy opened fired at a school in Belgrade, police have said.
Police received a call about the shooting in the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school around 8.40am, they said in a statement.
The suspect, a seventh grade student, was arrested. Police added that the boy had fired several shots from his father’s gun at other students and the school guard.
Reports said terrified parents have arrived to the school trying to find their children.
‘I saw kids running out from the school, screaming. Parents came, they were in panic. Later I heard three shots,’ a girl who attends a high school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar told state TV RTS.
Police have blocked the street around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia
Police received a call about the shooting in the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school at around 8.40am, they said in a statement
Officers in helmets and bulletproof vests cordoned off the area around the school, which is in the Vračar neighbourhood in central Belgrade.
Serbian media have reported that the guard was killed in the shooting. Police gave no other details.
One of the seriously wounded is believed to be the school’s history teacher, although this has not been confirmed.
Local media footage from the scene showed commotion outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.
Casualties are being treated and an investigation into the motives behind the shooting is under way, police said in a statement, without elaborating.
The country’s Interior Ministry said in a statement: ‘The police sent all available patrols immediately to the spot and arrested a suspected minor – a seventh grade student who is suspected of firing several shots from his father’s gun in the direction of students and school security.’
Vračar is a wealthy area of the city and a number of embassies are based there.
A row of ambulances were pictured parked on Kralja Milutin Street outside.
Police sealed off the blocks surrounding the school. Primary schools in Serbia have eight grades.
Police sealed off the blocks around the Vladislav Ribnikar school, in the center of Belgrade
Mass shootings in the country are extremely rare. Experts, however, have repeatedly warned of the number of weapons left over in the country after the wars of the 1990s.
The western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following the unrest there.
Serbian authorities have offered several amnesties for owners to hand in or register illegal guns.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
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