The suspect, a seventh grade student who has not been identified, was arrested, police said. He had fired several shots from his father’s gun at his teacher, other students and a school guard, authorities said.
A security guard was killed and several students and a teacher were injured after a teenage boy opened fire at a school in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Wednesday, according to police.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting at the Vladislav Ribnikar school Wednesday morning, Serbian police said, according to Reuters.
A security guard was killed in the shooting, police said, according to the news agency. Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the central Vracar district where the school is based, said doctors were fighting to save the teacher’s life, Reuters reported. The conditions of the students injured were not immediately clear.
The suspect, a seventh grade student who has not been identified, was arrested, police said, according to The Associated Press. They said he had fired several shots from his father’s gun at other students and a school guard.
A motive in the shooting was not clear as of early Wednesday.
Milan Milosevic, a father of one of the students at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school, said his daughter “managed to escape” the shooting.
Speaking with broadcaster N1, he said the suspect had “first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly,” according to Reuters.
Mass shootings in Serbia are extremely rare.
“I really don’t know what to say. This is a complete tragedy of a society,” Serbian politician Miodrag Gavrilovic said in a tweet reacting to the shooting. “Aggression and violence is at every turn, but if the shooting happens in an elementary school…”
“I seriously fear for the consciousness of our children,” the MP later wrote. “Well, that boy is only one year older than my son. I do not know. This tragedy deeply affected me personally.”