BELGRADE: At least eight people have been killed and 13 others injured in a second mass shooting near Mladenovac, a village 60 kilometres south of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.
The 21-year-old gunman armed with an automatic weapon opened fire from a moving vehicle, killing eight and injuring 13 others.
Police arrested the suspected murder after an hours-long manhunt throughout the night, state media RTS said. The the murder suspect was arrested near Kragujevac.
The shooting occurred barely days after a 14-year-old student killed eight students at a school in Belgrade this week.
According to the BBC, the gunman started firing at citizens with an automatic weapon after arguing with a police officer in a park in Dubona. The man is then said to have shot people from his car, killing at least eight and injuring many more.
Danica Grujičić, the minister of health and Aleksandar Vulin, the chief of the Security Intelligence Agency, reportedly travelled to the place early on Friday.
Earlier, Serbian media said that special police forces arrived at the villages of Dubona and Mladenovac, where the latest massacre occurred. Images from the scene show police officers stopping vehicles at checkpoints as they try to locate the gunman.
A helicopter, drones and several police patrols also searched for the suspect around Dubona.
On Wednesday, a boy shot dead eight fellow pupils at his school in Belgrade and a security guard. It prompted the Serbian government to propose tighter ban on gun ownership.
Heavy shootings are comparatively rare in Serbia, which has strict gun laws, but weapon ownership in the country is among the highest in Europe.
The western Balkans are awash with illegal arms following wars and unrest in the 1990s. In 2019, it was estimated that there were 39.1 firearms per 100 citizens in Serbia – the third highest globally, behind the United States and Montenegro.
