A teenage boy, on Wednesday, May 3, opened fire at a school in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, killing eight children and a school guard.

Police said six more children and a teacher were injured and hospitalised.

Police identified the shooter by his initials, K.K., and said he had opened fire with his father’s gun, adding that he was arrested in the schoolyard.

He was identified as a student at the school in central Belgrade who was born in 2009.

Police said they received a call about the shooting at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school at about 8:40 a.m.

Primary schools in Serbia have eight grades, starting with first grade.

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“I was able to hear the shooting. It was non-stop. I didn’t know what was happening. We were receiving some messages on the phone,” a student, who was in a sports class downstairs when the gunfire erupted, said.

The student who heard the shooting, who was identified only by her initials, E.M., because of her age, described the suspect as a “quiet guy” who “looked nice”.

“He was having good grades, but we didn’t know much about him. He was not so open with everybody. Surely I wasn’t expecting this to happen,” the student added.

Milan Milosevic, who said his daughter was in a history class when the shooting took place, said he rushed out when he heard what had happened.

“I asked where is my child but no one could tell me anything at first. Then she called and we found out she was out,” he said.

Milosevic quoted his daughter as saying that the boy fired first at the teacher and then the children who ducked under the desks.

Police sealed off the blocks around the school in the centre of Belgrade.

Unlike in the United States, mass shootings in Serbia and in the wider Balkan region are extremely rare; none were reported at schools in recent years.

In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

Experts, however, have repeatedly warned of the number of weapons left over in the country after the wars of the 1990s. They also note that decades-long instability stemming from the conflicts as well as the ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.

Local media footage from the scene showed commotion outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.

The Star