WORLD NEWS | Serbia’s education minister resigns after mass shooting

BELGRADE, May 7 (AP) — Serbia’s education minister handed in his resignation Sunday after two mass shootings, one at an elementary school, killed 17 people, while European governments urged citizens to surrender All unregistered weapons or risk being shot.imprison

Education Minister Branko Ruzic was the first Serbian official to resign over the shooting, despite widespread calls for more senior officials to step down following the spate of bloodshed. Ruzic cited the “catastrophic tragedy that has engulfed our country” in explaining his decision.

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Ruzic was quick to blame “the malign influence of the Internet, video games and so-called Western values” shortly after Wednesday’s attack on a school in the Serbian capital Belgrade. Such criticism is common in the Bulacan state, where pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiments have prevailed in recent years.

On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said individuals could surrender illegally owned weapons between Monday and June 8 without facing any charges. Administration officials have warned that those who ignore the order will face prosecution and, if convicted, could be behind bars for years.

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Police said the amnesty would apply to guns, grenades, ammunition and other weapons.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, speaking to the nation for the third time since the killings, said: “We want to get millions of rounds this way.”

The populist leader criticized the opposition’s planned protests over his government’s handling of the crisis, saying “it’s not done anywhere in the world. It’s not good for the country.”

Weekend funerals were held for victims of the shooting at the Belgrade school on Wednesday and Thursday night in a rural area south of the capital. The violence also injured 21 people, shocking and distressing the Balkan country.

Although Serbia possesses a large number of weapons and ranks among the highest in Europe’s list of registered weapons per capita, Serbia is no stranger to crisis situations following the wars of the 1990s that accompanied the collapse of Yugoslavia.

The most recent mass shooting occurred in 2013, when a veteran killed 13 people. The attacker in the country’s first mass school shooting was a 13-year-old boy who opened fire on classmates, killing seven girls, a boy and a school guard.

The next day, a 20-year-old man opened fire indiscriminately in two villages in central Serbia, killing eight people. Both he and the boys involved in the primary school attack were arrested.

While the country struggled to come to terms with what had happened, authorities pledged to crack down on guns and said they would increase security in schools and across the state.

“We invite all citizens in possession of illegal weapons to heed this call to go to the nearest police station and surrender their weapons without proper documentation,” police officer Jelena Lakicevic said.

Lakicevic said voluntary surrender applies to all firearms, explosive devices, weapon parts and ammunition that people have illegally stored in their homes.

Serbia has refused to fully confront its role in the wars of the 1990s, with war criminals largely treated as heroes and minorities routinely facing harassment and sometimes physical violence. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)