Two pupils wounded in Serbia school shooting in critical condition
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[May 04, 2023]
By Aleksandar Vasovic
BELGRADE (Reuters) -Two pupils wounded in Serbia's first mass school
shooting were in critical condition on Thursday, health officials said,
as the country prepared for three days of national mourning.
The suspected shooter, a 13-year-old boy, surrendered on Wednesday,
police said, after taking two handguns belonging to his father and
killing eight pupils and a security guard in their school in the capital
Belgrade.
A teacher and six pupils were wounded. They are being treated in the
Tirsova hospital and the city's University Hospital.
"The girl who underwent an urgent surgery yesterday due to head injuries
... remains in critical condition and in intensive care," Sinisa Ducic,
the acting director at the city's Tirsova hospital, told reporters.
Milika Asanin, director of the University hospital, said that the
condition of a severely wounded boy treated there had improved, but was
still considered critical, the Tanjug news agency reported.
The remaining children and the teacher treated in the two hospitals were
in stable condition, both Ducic and Asanin said.
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Mass shootings in Serbia are rare and this was the first-ever school
shooting in the Balkan country, prompting the government to announce
tougher curbs on gun ownership and to declare three days of national
mourning from Friday.
President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday announced a moratorium on new
gun licences other than for hunting, a revision of existing permits,
enhanced surveillance of shooting ranges and of how members of the
public store their weapons.
In a statement on Thursday, the Serbian Interior Ministry warned gun
owners to keep their weapons empty and locked up.
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![](../images/050423PIX/news_a54.jpg)
People pay tribute following a school
mass shooting, after a boy opened fire on others, killing fellow
students and staff in Belgrade, Serbia, May 4, 2023. REUTERS/Antonio
Bronic
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Police will control homes of gun owners to ensure they keep weapons
properly. Negligently stored arms will be confiscated and owners
will face charges, the ministry said.
The suspected shooter used two pistols that belonged to his father,
police said on Wednesday. The guard and three girls were shot in a
hallway. A teacher and pupils in a history class were then shot,
police said.
Porfirije, the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, called for
a memorial prayer on Thursday.
The suspected shooter is under Serbia's age of criminal
responsibility. He has been in a psychiatric institution for an
evaluation, Vucic told reporters on Wednesday, adding the suspect's
parents had been arrested.
Irina Borovic, a lawyer for the shooter's father, told Reuters that
her client was to face charges of aggravated endangering of public
safety and will appear before the court on Friday.
A day after the shooting, residents in Belgrade were still coming to
terms with what happened. Aleksandra Zizic, a schoolteacher, said
she was in shock.
"We have spent the day yesterday with children to try and
rationalise ... what happened. But there are no words," she told
Reuters.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Ivana Sekularac and Fedja Grulovic;
Editing by Robert Birsel and Sharon Singleton)
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