Topline
At least eight people were killed and 13 were injured in a shooting late Thursday in Serbia, an incident that comes just a day after another mass shooting at a school in the capital city of Belgrade claimed nine lives.
Police officers block the street near the scene of a Thursday night attack in the village of Dubona, … [+]
Key Facts
The incident took place near Mladenovac, a municipality on the outskirts of Belgrade when a gunman fired at people from a moving vehicle, Serbian public broadcaster RTS reported.
Local police and anti-terror squads continued their search for a 21-year-old suspect on Friday and have reportedly managed to surround a building he is believed to be hiding in.
Citing other local media outlets, RTS reported that two accomplices were present in the car with the alleged shooter, one of whom was killed by police.
The cause of the shooting is yet to be known, however, the Serbian interior minister Bratislav Gašić called the incident a “terrorist act,” without any additional details.
Serbia is currently in the midst of a three-day period of mourning, after nine people were killed in a school shooting in Belgrade on Wednesday.
Key Background
Thursday night’s incident is the second major mass shooting to take place in Serbia in less than 48 hours. On Wednesday morning, eight students and a security guard were killed at a school in Belgrade after a teenage shooter opened fire in a classroom. At least seven other people, six students and a teacher, were injured in the shooting. The suspected shooter, who is 14 years old, was arrested in the school’s playground after the deadly incident. Mass shootings are rare in Serbia. Prior to this week’s twin tragedies, the last such incident took place in 2013, when 13 people were shot dead by former Balkan war veterans. Serbia has strict gun laws in place but their enforcement is a challenge in a country flooded with automatic weapons from the Balkan conflict in the 1990s.
Surprising Fact
Serbia and its neighbor Montenegro—which split from Serbia after an independence referendum in 2006—have the world’s third-highest rate of firearm ownership by civilians, after the United States and Yemen. According to data published in 2018 by the research group Small Arms Survey, 39 out of every 100 Serbs own a firearm, coming only below the U.S.’s 120.5 per 100 and Yemen’s 52.8 per 100.
Further Reading
Eight dead, more than 10 wounded in the shooting near Mladenovac (RTS)
At Least 9 Killed In Rare Serbia School Shooting, Teenager Arrested (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/05/05/eight-killed-in-serbias-second-mass-shooting-in-two-days/