Nine dead in Serbian school shooting, teenage boy arrested

Kathmandu: Eight students and a security guard are dead after a shooting at an elementary school in Serbia on Wednesday.

The shooting took place in Serbia’s capital Belgrade at 8:40 am local time. ‘Eight children and a security guard were killed, while six children and one schoolteacher were wounded,’ the interior ministry said.

Milan Nedeljkovic, president of Belgrade’s Vracar district where the shooting occurred, said the school’s security guard likely prevented more deaths by putting himself in front of the shooter.

The guard ‘wanted to prevent the tragedy and he was the first victim,’ Nedeljkovic told reporters told journalists live on television outside the school.

Earlier in the morning, police said they had arrested a 14-year-old boy suspected of carrying out the attack with father’s gun. According to the suspect’s classmate, he walked into a history class, first shot the teacher and then turned his weapon on his fellow students.

‘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,’ the interior ministry said in a statement.

Footage broadcast from the scene showed worried parents waiting for their children near the school as police surrounded the building.

The incident rocked the Balkan nation, where school shootings are extremely rare and gun violence is uncommon. Officials say an investigation into the motives behind the incident is under way.