Countries

After massacres in Serbia, copycat incidents multiply

Several threats, all foiled. Vucic, 'too many weapons around'

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 07 MAG - After the two massacres in recent days, with a total toll of 17 dead and 21 wounded, episodes of emulation are multiplying in Serbia, as well as in other countries in the region, while police forces have greatly accentuated their activities directed at confiscating illegally held weapons and ammunition. In Belgrade in recent hours a 41-year-old man was arrested who, in a message posted on social media, had threatened to take a rifle and kill all the inhabitants of Ruma, a town not far from the capital. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a resident of Banovici (center) who, under the effects of alcohol, threatened to carry out "a massacre like the one in Belgrade" and informed the police of his intentions, ended up in handcuffs. In Skopje, capital of northern Macedonia, two incidents occurred in as many city schools. In the first, a 16-year-old student who had posted a message on social media with death threats against a teacher was detained. In the second, a juvenile student was summoned by police after he pulled a toy gun out of his backpack during class time and pointed it at his classmates and teacher. On May 3, a 13-year-old boy, shooting at a Belgrade elementary school with his father's gun, killed eight of his peers and a custodian, injuring six other pupils and a teacher. Less than 48 hours later, a 21-year-old man, firing from a car driven by an accomplice, killed eight people and wounded 14 others in three villages not far from Mladenovac, a town some 60 km south of Belgrade. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced draconian measures directed at intensifying controls and significantly reducing the large amount of weapons still in circulation in Serbia, a legacy--as in other countries in the region--of the armed conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Today in Serbia on the third and final day of national mourning, funerals are scheduled for several victims of the two massacres that rocked the country. In solidarity, Montenegro has also proclaimed national mourning for today.

(ANSA).

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