A suspected gunman in the second Serbia mass shooting has been arrested after eight people were killed and 13 wounded in drive-by massacre in Belgrade.
The attacker in the second Serbia mass shooting was said to have hijacked a taxi and forced the driver to drive him around the village of Dubona, 26 miles south, where he fired indiscriminately at strangers using automatic weapons.
Police detained a man, identified only with the initials UB, near the town of Kragujevac after the spree, which took place on Thursday night.
The attacks came 48 hours after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns to kill eight fellow students and a guard at a school on Wednesday.
The bloodshed sent shockwaves through a Balkan nation scarred by wars, but unused to mass murders.
Hundreds of police officers, including elite Special Anti-terrorist Unit (SAJ) and Gendarmerie were involved in a manhunt, dubbed Operation Whirlwind, to track down the gunman.
The interior ministry released a statement saying: ‘The suspect UB, born in 2002, has been apprehended in the vicinity of the city of Kragujevac, he is suspected of killing eight people and wounding 14 overnight.’
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic was expected to address the nation this morning.
An off-duty policeman and his sister were among those killed, RTS reported.
‘This is sad, the young policeman is my daughter’s age, born in 1998,’ said Danijela, a middle-aged woman in Dubona.
‘My daughter is taking sedatives, we could not sleep all night. They grew up together.’
Those wounded were transported to several local hospitals, the RTS reported. It also said the Health Ministry called people to donate blood for the wounded.
Another resident, Ivan, said: ‘This is terrible for our state, this is a huge defeat. In two days so many … killed.’
The Balkan nation begins three days of official mourning on Friday following its first mass school shooting on Wednesday.
The suspected shooter took two of his father’s handguns to kill eight pupils and a security guard in a hallway and history class at their school in the capital Belgrade.
Hundreds of school children with candles and flowers gathered for a vigil on Thursday evening in streets around the school, while churches planned memorial prayers.
Dozens of high school teachers rallied in front of the Education Ministry in downtown Belgrade on Thursday, demanding improvements to school security and the education system.
Serbia has an entrenched gun culture, especially in rural areas, but also strict gun control laws.
Automatic weapons are illegal and over the years authorities have offered several amnesties to those who surrender them.
After the school shooting in Belgrade, the Serbian government introduced a two-year ban on the issuing of new gun permits, a revision of existing permits and checks on how gun owners store their arms.
Still, the country, and the rest of Western Balkans, are awash with military-grade weapons and ordnance that remained in private hands after the wars of the 1990s.