Portugal’s Foreign Ministry this Wednesday expressed its regret over the school shooting in Belgrade that killed nine people, including eight children, while expressing “sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy” in Serbia.
“We learned with great excitement about the shooting at the Vladislav Rybnikar school in Belgrade. Our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy,” reads a released note from the ministry, led by Joao Gomes Cravinho. on the social network Twitter.
Among the dead in the shooting provoked by a teenager, eight children and a school security guard of the school, which is located in the center of Belgrade.
Authorities also said that six children and a teacher were injured in the attack and were taken to hospital.
The teenager responsible for the shooting had a hit list and sketches of classrooms, Serbian police said.
Police officer Veselin Milic said the shooter drew sketches of classes at Vladislav Rybnikar’s elementary school and made a list of people he intended to “shoot” during the attack, which was reportedly planned for a month.
Milic said teenager Kosta Kecmanovic, who was in the seventh grade at school, personally called the police when the attack stopped.
Kosta Kecmanović, born in 2009, was stopped by the police at a school attended by students aged between six and 15. Basic education in Serbia includes eight years of study.
Police added that the assailant fired several shots from his father’s pistol at other students and a school security guard.
Authorities received a phone call about the Vladislav Rybnikar school shooting at around 8:40 a.m. local time (7:40 a.m. in Lisbon), said police authorities, who have sealed off nearby neighborhoods.
Mass shootings in Serbia are extremely rare, but there are still many weapons in the country that were used in the wars of the 1990s that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. In recent years, not a single shooting in schools has been recorded.
In 2013, a Balkan War veteran killed 13 people in a village in central Serbia.