() — At least eight people were killed and 13 others wounded in a shooting in the rural town of Dubona, near Mladenovac in Serbia, the spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry confirmed to .
The attacker remains at large and an arrest warrant has been issued for a 21-year-old suspect. Police have cordoned off the area where he is believed to be hiding, according to affiliate N1.
The shooting occurred on Thursday night, at 11:00 pm local time, said the spokesman for the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The attacker fired at a group of people with an automatic weapon and fled the scene, according to public broadcaster RTS, prompting police to launch a manhunt.
All special police units are taking part in the operation, including an anti-terror unit, a helicopter unit and police forces from the cities of Belgrade and Smederevo.
Ambulances and relatives of the injured are arriving at the Mladenovac Emergency Center, N1 reported.
“The attacker is fleeing and all available patrols have been sent in the direction of Mladenovac and Mali Požarevac,” he added.
The events come just a day after Serbia was shocked by the news that a 13-year-old boy opened fire on his classmates at a school in the capital, Belgrade. That massacre left at least 8 children and a security guard dead.
Until this week, mass shootings were rare in Serbia, despite the country’s high gun ownership rate. Serbia has the highest level of civilian gun ownership in Europe and the fifth highest in the world, a legacy of years of conflict in the 1990s.
