“He started shooting at random, first hitting the history teacher and then he kept shooting. She killed two of our friends, I lay on top of them so she’d think she was dead.”recounts to the Nova portal a girl companion of the alleged author of the shooting at a Belgrade school.

Nine people have died, eight of them minors and a security guard, and several were injured -six students and a teacher- in a school in the Serbian capital when a 14-year-old student from that institution, shot this morning around 8:00 with a pistol against his companions and teaching and security staff.

The Ministry of the Interior of Serbia reports that, in addition to the deceased, six students and a teacher are injured, treated in two hospitals in Belgrade. A girl is in critical condition. The young man suspected of having committed the crime was arrested in the courtyard of the Vladislav Ribnikar school.

The seventh grader used a gun, allegedly owned by his father. According to the Serbian media, the minor responsible for the shooting was an exemplary student and had participated in several school competitions. Numerous police patrols are deployed in the area and are working to clarify the circumstances that led to the tragedy.

According to the Serbian press, the police would be searching the address of the detained minor to find evidence and motivations that explain the attack. The Union of Education Workers of Serbia expressed solidarity with the families of the victims and denounced the growing climate of violence in the classrooms and called for reinforcing gun controls.

“Because of this shooting, we should all honestly ask ourselves how we got here and if there is going back after reaching the point that a minor shoots to kill”, says the statement. The union demands “zero tolerance for all forms of violent behaviour, both by children and adults” and to strengthen gun control.

Although mass shootings are rare in Serbia, there are many weapons in circulation as a legacy of the wars to break up the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.