Serbian authorities have apprehended a suspected gunman who killed eight people and injured 13 others in Belgrade on Thursday night, May 4.
The death came only one day after a 13-year-old teenager in the country went on a murdering spree at his school.
Following an all-night search by 600 police officers, the suspect, identified only by his initials U.B., was apprehended near the central town of Kragujevac, 60 miles south of Belgrade.
According to local media, the gunman allegedly began fire in a schoolyard before proceeding to shoot individuals at random throughout three towns while in a moving automobile.
An off-duty police officer and his sister were among those murdered in the late-night shooting near Mladenovac, 26 miles south of Belgrade, according to public TV RTS.
In Serbia, a shooter opened fire on a moving car, killing eight people and injuring 13 others in the country’s second mass shooting this week.
The mass shooting comes only days after the bloodiest school shooting in Serbian history, in which Kosta Kecmanovic, 13, killed nine people, including eight classmates, and injured seven others at a Belgrade school before turning himself in on Wednesday.
According to local media, the suspect was involved in an incident in a school yard on Thursday before fleeing with an assault rifle and a handgun.
Late Thursday, the suspect began fire and continued to murder his victims one by one across three villages near Mladenovac, 30 miles south of Belgrade.
One guy in the village of Dubona said he came out of his house late last night after hearing gunfire.
‘I detected the odour of gunpowder. I heard noises coming from the direction of the school. ‘We saw individuals on the ground,’ claimed the man, who declined to provide his name out of fear for his safety.
‘This is a major defeat for our state,’ says the governor. So many… killed in two days,’ said Ivan, a Dubona resident.
Concerned relatives gathered outside the emergency medical centre in Belgrade, where at least eight injured persons were being treated, according to N1 television.
Following the shooting, 600 Serbian police officers, including the elite Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ) and Gendarmerie, launched a manhunt and set up roadblocks around the villages.
Officers apprehended the suspect in Kragujevac after an all-night manhunt.
According to RTS, Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic branded the shooting a “terrorist act.”
Following its first mass school shooting on Wednesday, the Balkan country will enter three days of official mourning on Friday.
Kosta Kecmanovic, 13, admitted to opening fire on his screaming classmates inside their Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School classroom, murdering seven girls and a boy all under the age of 14.
