Serbian police have managed to detain a suspect wanted for a deadly shooting that took place in the villages of Dubona and Sepsin in the Serbian municipality of Mladenovac near Belgrade, the Serbian Interior Ministry said on Friday.
"After a thorough search, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained U.B., born in 2002, near the city of Kragujevac. He is suspected of having killed eight and wounded 14 people with firearm," the Serbian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Local residents in the village of Dubona, where the suspect comes from, describe him as a "problem young man," the Radio Television of Serbia broadcaster reported.
More than 600 Serbian law enforcement officers, using helicopters and night vision cameras, were reportedly searching for the suspect.
The armed attack the Serbian municipality of Mladenovac near Belgrade after the school shooting on May 3 was an attack on the whole of Serbia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday.
"Repeated mass criminal attack, after shooting at our children, at everyone who happened to be there by accident... this is an attack on the whole country," Vucic said in an address to the citizens.
Law enforcement officers consider the attack to be an act of terrorism, Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic was quoted as saying by local media.
Earlier in the day, Serbian media reported that at least eight people had been killed and 13 others had suffered gunshot wounds as a result of shooting in Dubona and Sepsin. The suspect was identified as 21-year-old Uros B. The man reportedly had an argument with a police officer of his age at a schoolyard, after which he took a firearm from his house, shot the officer, his sister, and one more person, and fled the scene. After that, the suspect continued shooting in the neighboring village.
On Wednesday, another shooting took place in a school in the Vrachar municipality in the center of the Serbian capital. Eight children and a guard were killed, while another six children and a teacher were wounded. The Serbian government declared a nationwide three-day mourning period starting May 5, with Serbian Education Minister Branko Ruzic calling the shooting "the greatest tragedy that has ever happened in Serbia and in our educational system in recent history."