Sat | Jul 4, 2026

8 fatally shot in Serbia town a day after 9 killed at school

Published:Thursday | May 4, 2023 | 8:43 PM
Police officers guard the Vladimir Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023. A 13-year-old who opened fire Wednesday at his school in Serbia's capital killed eight fellow students and a guard before calling the police and being arrested. Six children and a teacher were also hospitalised. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A shooter killed at least eight people and wounded 13 in a drive-by shooting in a town close to Belgrade late Thursday, the second such mass killing in Serbia in two days, state television reported.

The attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot randomly at people near the town of Mladenovac, some 30 miles south of the capital, the RTS report said early Friday.

Police were looking for the 21-year-old suspect, who fled after the attack, the report said.

Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic called the shooting “a terrorist act,” the report said.

Special police and helicopter units have been sent to the region as well as ambulances, it added.

No other details were immediately available, and police had not issued any statements.

On Wednesday in Belgrade, a 13-year-old boy used his father's guns in a school shooting rampage that killed eight of his schoolmates and a school guard.

The bloodshed sent shockwaves through the Balkan nation unused to such mass murders.

Dozens of Serbian students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, paid silent homage Thursday to peers killed a day earlier.

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