At least 17 people, including eight children, killed in separate tragedies \u2013 a school shooting and drive-by attack
\n Balkan
\nTwo mass shootings in two days in Serbia, where such tragedies are rare, have sent the country and surrounding Balkan region into a state of shock.
\nLate on Thursday, at least eight people were killed and 14 wounded after a 21-year-old suspect in a moving car opened fire on passers-by in a town south of Belgrade.
\nA day earlier, a 13-year-old suspect carried out an attack that officials say he had planned for months, killing eight of his schoolmates and a security guard.
\nOn Friday, waking up to the news of the drive-by attack, Serbia entered an official three-day mourning period to pay tribute to Wednesday\u2019s child victims.
\n\u201cThere will be justice. These monsters will never see the light of the day, neither the little monster nor the little older monster,\u201d President Aleksandar Vucic said, as he deplored Thursday\u2019s \u201cterrorist attack\u201d and proposed tough new gun controls.
\nIn a sombre national address, President Vucic, wearing a dark suit, said the gunman had been wearing a T-shirt with neo-Nazi symbols.
\nHe gave no further details about the shootings.
\nVucic proposed a moratorium on gun permits regardless of weapon type, in what he called a \u201cpractical disarmament\u201d of Serbia that would also include more frequent medical and psychological checks of gun owners.
\nThe government would also hire 1,200 new police officers to improve security in schools, he said.
\nVucic added that he had proposed the reintroduction of the death penalty but said the government was against such a step.
\nIn Serbia, the president is largely a ceremonial figure but Vucic wields considerable power as he also heads the ruling party.
\nDeadly drive-by attack
\nThursday\u2019s shooting took place near Mladenovac, a town 50km (30 miles) south of the capital Belgrade.
\nThe state-run RTS television said the suspected gunman first opened fire at a schoolyard in the village of Dubona and killed a police officer and his sister, along with others in the area.
\nHe then moved on to the nearby villages of Mali Orasje and Sepsin, according to RTS.
\n\u201cWe heard gunshots in the evening, but I thought it was fireworks, children fooling around. It did not even occur to me that something like this could happen,\u201d Zvonko Mladenovic, a Dubona resident, told the AFP news agency.
\nThe suspect was on the run for hours before police arrested him early Friday, RTS reported.
\nThe police said the man had been arrested near the central city of Kragujevac and about 90km (56 miles) from the scene of the attacks.
\nAccording to RTS, the suspect was arrested at the home of a relative and was in possession of four hand grenades and a large number of illegal weapons and ammunition.
\nSerbian officials including Vucic and Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic have cast the shooting as \u201ca terrorist act\u201d.
\nAl Jazeera\u2019s Bojana Stojanovic, reporting near Mladenovac, said the heavy police presence eased after the suspect was arrested.
\n\u201cPeople felt relief after news of the arrest,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cWe are all in a state of shock, people have still not captured their emotions after the school tragedy.
\n\u201cEveryone is a bit more silent than they were. The loudest thing we can hear is shock. These things never happened in Serbia before, not in this measure.\u201d
\nState of mourning
\nIn the shooting rampage at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school in central Belgrade, the 13-year-old suspect used his father\u2019s guns.
\nOne of the victims, a child, was a French citizen, France\u2019s foreign ministry said.
\nEarlier on Thursday, dozens of students, many wearing black, paid their respects.
\nPeople cried and hugged outside the school, still cordoned off by police, as they stood in front of heaps of flowers, small teddy bears and footballs.
\nThe Balkans is among the top regions in Europe in the number of guns per capita and Serbia is awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s.
\nStill, the country has strict gun laws and mass shootings are rare \u2013 the last was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 17 people, including eight children, killed in separate tragedies \u2013 a school shooting and drive-by attack Balkan Two mass shootings in two days in Serbia, where such tragedies are rare, have sent the country and surrounding Balkan region into a state of shock. Late on Thursday, at least eight people were killed and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-329617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n