Serbian police on Thursday urged citizens to lock up their guns after a 13-year-old boy used his father's guns in a shooting rampage that killed eight of his fellow students and a school guard, sending shock waves through the nation.
Thousands of people in Belgrade and other cities throughout the Balkan country lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave toys to commemorate the victims of the shooting that happened in a central district in the Serbian capital on Wednesday morning.Many people cried and hugged outside the school as they stood in front of heaps of flowers, small teddy bears, a gray and pink toy elephant and a girl's ballet shoes hung on the fence.
"The Ministry of Interior is appealing to all gun owners to store their guns with care, locked up in safes or closets so they are out of reach of others, particularly children," police said in a statement that also announced tightened controls on gun owners in the future. Serbian teachers' unions announced protests and strikes to demand changes and warn about a crisis in the school system. Hundreds of students and their parents protested in front of the education ministry, demanding resignations.
Kecmanovic then unloaded the gun in the school yard and called the police himself, although they had already received an alert from a school official. When he called, Kecmanovic told duty officers he was a "psychopath who needs to calm down," police said. "I think we are all guilty. I think each one of us has some responsibility, that we allowed some things we should not allow ," said Zoran Sefik, a Belgrade resident, during Wednesday evening's vigil near the school.
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