Belgrade: At least eight people were killed and 13 others were injured in a drive-by shooting late on Thursday near a town close to Belgrade, according to state television. This was Serbia's second such mass killing in two days.

According to an early Friday RTS report, the attacker fired shots at random at people close to the town of Mladenovac, which is located about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the capital. According to the report, police were looking for a suspect, age 21, who escaped after the assault.

The shooting occurred the day after a 13-year-old boy went on a shooting spree at a school in Belgrade, killing eight other students and a security guard while using his father's weapons. Unaccustomed to mass murders, the Balkan nation was rocked by the bloodshed.

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Mass shootings are extremely uncommon even though Serbia is awash in weapons from the 1990s wars. The shooting at the school on Wednesday marked a first for the nation's modern history. Before this week, there hadn't been a mass shooting since 2013, when a war veteran massacred 13 people in a village in the middle of Serbia.

According to state media, Serbia's interior minister, Bratislav Gasic, described the shooting on Thursday as "a terrorist act." It added that special police, helicopter, and ambulance units had been dispatched to the area. Police had not released any statements, and no additional information was immediately available.

Students from Serbia filled the streets around the school in the heart of Belgrade earlier on Thursday, many of them carrying flowers and paying silent homage to their classmates who had been killed the day before. To remember the nine people who died on Wednesday morning, tens of thousands of people lined up to place flowers, light candles, and leave toys.

The tragedy also sparked a discussion about the general state of the country in the wake of decades of crises and conflicts, the aftereffects of which have produced a persistent state of insecurity and instability as well as significant political rifts.

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Authorities increased gun control on Thursday as police urged residents to lock up their weapons and keep them out of the reach of children.
According to the police, the teenager attacked using his father's weapons. According to police, he had been planning it for a month, making lists of the kids he intended to kill and sketching out the classrooms.

According to police, the boy stole two guns and bullets from the safe where they were kept because he had been to shooting ranges with his father and appeared to know the combination.

Seven people were hospitalised as a result of the shooting on Wednesday morning at Vladislav Ribnikar Primary School, including a teacher and six students. According to doctors, a boy who suffered spinal injuries is in serious condition and a girl who was shot in the head is still in a life-threatening situation.

Authorities declared they were establishing a helpline to assist people in coping with the tragedy. Many people responded to the call for blood donations for the injured patients. On Friday morning, a three-day period of mourning will start.

In order to draw attention to a crisis in the educational system and demand changes, Serbian teachers' unions announced protests and strikes. Authorities deflected blame, with some officials attributing it to Western influence.

Kosta Kecmanovic, the shooter who was identified by the police, has not provided a reason for his actions. Kecmanovic killed the guard and three students in the hallway as soon as he entered his school. He then went to the history class, where he opened fire on the instructor before moving on the students.

Having done so, Kecmanovic called the police himself even though they had already been alerted by a school official. He then discharged the weapon in the schoolyard. According to police, Kecmanovic called and informed the on-duty officers that he was a "psychopath who needs to calm down."

Seven girls and one boy were among the children who died on Wednesday. According to the French foreign ministry, one of the girls was a citizen of France.

According to authorities, Kecmanovic is too young to be accused of a crime and put on trial. His father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public security because his son obtained the firearms, and he has been admitted to a mental institution.

"I believe we are all at fault. During the vigil that was held in the area of the school on Wednesday night, Belgrade resident Zoran Sefik said, "I believe that each of us bears some responsibility. We allowed some things that we shouldn't have allowed.

Another Belgrade resident, Jovan Lazovic, expressed his lack of surprise: "It was a matter of days when something like this could happen, having in mind what is happening in the world and here," he said.
Serbia and the rest of the Balkans have a strong gun culture, with the region having among the highest firearm ownership rates in Europe. At celebrations, guns are frequently fired into the air, and national identities include the cult of the warrior.

In a deeply divided nation like Serbia, where war criminals are glorified and violence against minority groups frequently goes unpunished, experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the abundance of weapons. 

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They also point out that ongoing economic hardship and decades of instability brought on by the conflicts of the 1990s could lead to such outbursts.
In an interview with N1 television, psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin said, "We have had too much violence for too long. Kids imitate models. Negative role models must be eradicated, and a new set of values must be developed.