The attacker who killed eight people and wounded more than 10 in a shootout this morning near the town of Mladenovac, some 60 kilometers from Belgrade, has been arrested, Serbian public television RTS reported. According to the source, the man, whose initials is U.B., was arrested in the vicinity of Kragujevac.

Eight people were killed and ten wounded near the town of Mladenovac when the detainee fired at them with automatic weapons from a car. Some 600 police officers from special units were searching for the attacker, a 21-year-old man, according to RTS.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic described the crime as a “terrorist act”.

This shooting came just two days after the one that took place at a Belgrade school, when a 13-year-old boy shot and killed nine people.

The incident came just a day after a 13-year-old student killed eight classmates and a security guard at a Belgrade primary school, an attack that shocked the country.

The assailant was arrested shortly after the massacre on the school grounds, where he awaited the arrival of the police, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

His father, a renowned doctor and owner of the weapon used, was arrested and must testify in court on Friday. The mother was also questioned.

Gun violence in schools is extremely rare in Serbia, a country of seven million people with around 765,000 registered weapons.

The Interior Ministry urged gun owners to keep them in locked places and warned that they could be seized from those who do not follow this instruction.

The government decreed three days of national mourning starting Friday and President Aleksandar Vucic deplored the event as “one of the most difficult days in contemporary history” of the country.

The Vladislav Ribnikar school, which caters for students from 7 to 15 years old in the center of Belgrade, remained closed on Thursday, with police guarding the entrance to the building.

Hundreds of people came to the place to lay flowers, toys or lit candles in an impromptu memorial.

There were also tributes in other Serbian cities such as Nis and Kragujevac, in the Croatian capital Zagreb or in Banja Luka, the administrative center of the Bosnian Serb Republic.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project