Eight children and a security guard have been killed in a rare school shooting in Serbia, officials say. The suspect is a 14-year-old seventh-grade student. The accused teenager fired several shots from his father’s gun at other students and the school guard.

Belgrade

Nine killed in Serbian school shooting

A 14-year-old boy has shot his teacher and eight other students in central Belgrade. A security guard was also shot. Serbian police say the suspect has been arrested, adding that he had used his father's gun. Mass shootings are rare in Serbia, which has strict gun laws. Let's go live to Al Jazeera's Ognjen Zoric, joining us from Belgrade. And so what more are we learning about this incident? Well I'll say first that what we are witnessing since this morning are many people that are shocked and in tears here around the school. Mostly pupils from this school that have been evacuated this morning, but also their parents who are trying to comfort them, and also the citizens of Belgrade that are in shock after this tragedy. That's not common in this area, so it disturbs very whole Serbia, but also the region. What you can see behind me is that the streets in this area are still closed. There are many, many police officers that are investigating all the details of this tragedy, but also the motives that led to it. What we know so far is that the shooter, the suspect for shooting, was a 14-year-old boy, the student of this school. Police confirmed earlier that eight students have been killed, and also one security guard, while six other people, five students among them and one teacher, are still in the hospital where doctors are taking care of them. President of municipality of Vracar, that's the municipality where this school is located, told us earlier that based on video surveillance in this school, they can tell that shooting started this morning in the hallway of the school. The security guard was first that saw the shooter, so he tried to stop him and lost his life doing it. After that, the shooter turned his gun toward the other students that were in the hallway, and he was arrested a couple of hours ago in a school yard. Right, and as you say, Ognjen, this is very rare. As you've been saying, this is very rare to happen in Belgrade. Tell us a little bit about the reaction of the people that you've been speaking to. The mass shootings are very rare. That's the reason that they are shocked, because mass shootings are rare, and this is the first time in Serbia that a tragedy like this is happening in a school that children are involved. This suspect was suspected to use his father's gun that he brought up to school in the backpack. And we are coming to that, that this is rare. That's the reason why school wasn't using the metal detectors on their doors. Now we are speaking about that. Some more security measures are needed. So many, many unions of the people that work in the school stopped, closed the schools for today, all the schools in Serbia, and they say that schools won't work even tomorrow until they are sure that every school in Serbia is safe after this tragedy. Ognjen Zoric, thank you for that update from Belgrade.

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