Early Friday morning, police arrested the suspect in a shooting in which eight people were killed and 14 injured. It was the second mass shooting in Serbia this week.
In the village of Dubona, 26 miles from the capital of Belgrade, a gunman opened fire from a moving vehicle after an altercation at a schoolyard, reported The New York Times. From there he moved through several different villages, including nearby Malo Orasje and Sepsin.
In total, eight were killed and 14 injured before the gunman retreated into hiding, per CNN. Over the course of the night, 600 members of Serbian Special Forces were deployed to gather evidence and look for the suspect. The suspect was identified by police as 21-year-old Uros B.
Early Friday, police surrounded the house of the suspected shooter, finding him inside. He was taken into custody, along with with his uncle and father, reported Reuters.
Confiscated from the suspect’s house were several hand grenades, and an automatic rifle with ammunition.
The country was already reeling from the first mass shooting of the week, when a 13-year-old at Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade shot and killed nine people, including eight students, just two days prior, as reported by The Associated Press.
Both incidents seemed to be an anomaly for Serbia and witnesses were shocked. Serbia hasn’t experienced a mass shooting since 2013, even though the country has a trove of firearms left over from the Balkan wars, per AP.
Between the two shootings, at least 17 people are dead.
“We are united in pain and sorrow,” Serbian President Aleksander Vucic said at a press conference on Friday morning, per CNN. “This is an attack on all our country and every citizen feels it.”
Vucic proposed new policies to stop another mass shooting from happening again by implementing stricter gun regulations in Serbia and hiring 1,200 new police officers to strengthen school security, reported CNN.