Suspect in second mass shooting in Serbia arrested

() — At least eight people were killed and 13 others injured in a shooting in the Mladenovac municipality in Serbia, the spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry confirmed to .

The suspect, a 21-year-old man identified as Uros B., was detained, the Serbian Interior Ministry spokesman told on Friday. The capture took place this Friday morning in the town of Kragujevac, 60 kilometers from the municipality of Mladenovac where the shootings took place, public broadcaster RTS reported.

The shooting occurred on Thursday night, at 11:00 pm local time, said the spokesman for the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The attacker first shot a group of people with an automatic weapon in the rural town of Dubona, some 60 kilometers from Belgrade, before shooting other people in the villages of Mali Orašje and Šepšin, N1 affiliate channel N1 reported. .

All three towns are located in the Serbian municipality of Mladenovac.

After committing this mass shooting, the attacker fled the scene, according to RTS, prompting the police to launch an intense search.

The attacker remains at large and an arrest warrant has been issued for a 21-year-old suspect, identified as Uros B. Police have cordoned off the area where he is believed to be hiding, according to affiliate N1.

Serbian public broadcaster RTS reported Friday that the suspect was in a vehicle with two other people before launching the attack.

More than 600 members of the Serbian Special Forces are searching for the attacker using Interior Ministry helicopters and thermal imaging cameras, according to public broadcaster RTS.

Police operate at a checkpoint after a shooting in Dubona, Serbia, on May 5, 2023. (Credit: Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

The Interior Ministry confirmed to that the incident is considered an act of domestic terrorism, but did not specify further details.

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.

The ministry also shared photos with showing Serbian special forces actively searching for the suspect and Interior Minister Gasic at the scene.

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.

An ambulance passes through a checkpoint after a shooting in Dubona, Serbia, on May 5, 2023. (Credit: Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

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.

–Josh Pennington, Xiaofei Xu, Alex Stambaugh and Vladimir Banic contributed to this report.