Doctors fight to save girl shot in head in Serbia school massacre
A SCHOOLGIRL wounded in Serbia’s first mass school shooting was in a critical condition yesterday with a gunshot wound to the head, the director of a paediatric hospital said as the country prepared for three days of national mourning.
The suspected attacker, a 13-year-old boy, surrendered on Wednesday, police said, after taking two handguns belonging to his father and killing eight pupils and a security guard at the school in the capital Belgrade.
“The girl who underwent an urgent surgery yesterday due to head injuries... remains in critical condition and in intensive care,” Sinisa Ducic, the acting director of the city’s Tirsova hospital, told reporters.
“The doctors are doing everything possible to save her life but her general condition is severe,” he said.
Mass shootings in Serbia are rare and this was the first school shooting in the Balkan country, prompting the government to announce tougher curbs on gun ownership and declare three days of mourning from tomorrow.
Aleksandar Vucic, the president, on
Wednesday announced a moratorium on new gun licences other than for hunting, a revision of existing permits, enhanced surveillance of shooting ranges and of how members of the public store their weapons.
In a statement yesterday, the Serbian interior ministry warned gun owners to keep their weapons empty, locked away in gun cabinets or safes and to store ammunition separately.
Police will inspect the homes of gun owners to ensure they keep weapons properly. Negligently stored arms would be confiscated and owners would face misdemeanour charges, the ministry’s statement said.
A teacher and six pupils were wounded in the shooting.
They are being treated in the Tirsova hospital and the city’s university hospital.
Two wounded boys in the Tirsova hospital were in a stable condition and were expected to be discharged in the coming days, Mr Ducic said.