Sam Amico
Eight students and one adult died as the result of a teenager opening fire at a school in Serbia, multiple news outlets reported.
Videos by Rare
The boy, 14, allegedly killed seven girls and another boy at an elementary school in Belgrade, the nation’s capital. The deceased adult was reportedly a security guard at the school.
Along with that, six other students and a teacher have been hospitalized, Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement, via CNN.
According to authorities, the boy’s plans of attack were written and discovered on crumpled pieces of paper. He opened fire in history class “because it was near the entrance of the school,” Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The boy reportedly used his father’s gun. He was located by police at the school playground and arrested after the shooting.
“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, per CNN.
“All police forces are still on the ground working intensively to shed light on all the facts and circumstances that led to this tragedy,” the ministry added later.
BBC reported that the teen had planned his attack a month in advance and had a list of fellow students to target. He planned in detail which classrooms he would enter first, a police spokesperson said.
Serbia has strict gun laws and school shootings are extremely rare overseas. This is the first shooting of its kind in Serbia, the nation’s education minister told BBC.
