Serbia will observe three days of national mourning following the school shooting. Credit: ANTONIO BRONIC/REUTERS
Schoolgirl injured in Serbia's first mass school shooting occurred on Thursday in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head, the director of a children's hospital in Belgrade said as the country prepared for three days of national mourning.
Police said the suspect in the shooting, a 13-year-old boy, turned himself in on Wednesday after taking two pistols belonging to his father and killing eight students and a security guard at their school in the capital Belgrade.
“A girl who underwent emergency surgery yesterday due to a traumatic brain injury … remains in critical condition and is in intensive care,” Sinisa Ducic, acting director of the Tirsova City Hospital, told reporters.
Doctors are doing everything possible to save her life, but her general condition is grave,” he said.
Mass shootings are rare in Serbia, and this was the first school shooting in the Balkan country, prompting the government to announce tighter restrictions on gun ownership and declare three days of national mourning from Friday.
People leave flowers and light candles in memory of the victims. Credit: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images Europe
Aleksandr Vučić, President of Serbia, on Wednesday announced a moratorium on new non-hunting gun licenses, a review of existing permits, increased surveillance of shooting ranges and how members of the public store their guns .
In a statement Thursday, Serbia's interior ministry warned gun owners to keep their guns empty, locked in gun cabinets or safes, and store ammunition separately.
Police will monitor gun owners' homes to ensure they storage. weapons are correct. The ministry said in a statement that carelessly stored weapons will be confiscated and the owners will face misdemeanor charges.
As a result of the shooting, a teacher and six students were injured. They are being treated at Tyrsov Hospital and the City University Hospital.
Two wounded boys are in stable condition at Tyrsov Hospital and will be released in the coming days, Ducic said.
The suspected shooter used two pistols owned by his father, police said on Wednesday. The guard and three girls were shot dead in the corridor. According to the police, a teacher and students in a history lesson were then shot dead.
A woman consoles a girl after a school shooting. Photo: Armin Durgut/AP
Porfiry, the country's dominant patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, called the faithful to a memorial prayer on Thursday.
The suspected shooter is under the age of criminal responsibility in Serbia. He was in a psychiatric hospital for evaluation, Vučić told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the suspect's parents had been arrested.
Irina Borovich, the shooter's father's lawyer, told Reuters that her client would face trial. charged with endangering public safety under aggravated circumstances and will stand trial on Friday.
A day after the shooting, the people of Belgrade still couldn't come to terms with what had happened. Alexandra Zizic, a school teacher, said she was shocked and shocked.
“Yesterday we spent a day with the children to try to explain…what happened. But there are no words,” she told Reuters.
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