Serbia’s education minister resigns in wake of deadly mass shootings, including at primary school

Serbia’s education minister resigned Sunday after two mass shootings, one at a primary school, which left 17 people dead, while European governments urged citizens to turn in all unregistered weapons or risk prison sentences.

Education Minister Branko Ruzic was the first Serbian official to resign over the shooting despite growing calls for senior officials to resign over the bloodshed. Ruzic noted the “catastrophic tragedy that has struck our country” when explaining his decision.

Shortly after the attack on the school in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, on Wednesday, Ruzic was quick to blame “the cancerous, pernicious influence of the internet, video games, the so-called Western values.” Such criticism is common in the Balkan countries, where pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment has grown in recent years.

On Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior said individuals could hand in illegally obtained weapons between Monday and June 8 without being charged. Those who ignore the order will be charged and, if convicted, could end up behind bars, government officials have warned.

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

In his third speech in the country since the assassination, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said, “We expect to get millions of bullets that way.”

The populist leader criticized the opposition for planning protests against his government over its handling of the crisis, saying “it’s not in this world. It’s bad for the country.”

Funerals were held over the weekend for the victims of the Belgrade school shooting on Wednesday and in a rural area south of the capital on Thursday night. The violence, which also injured 21 people, has shocked and disturbed the country.

While Serbia is awash in weapons and tops the list of weapons per capita in Europe, it is no stranger to the post-war crisis situation of the 1990s that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The most recent mass shooting before that was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people.

The attacker in the country’s first mass school shooting was a 13-year-old boy who opened fire on his classmates, killing seven girls, a boy and a school guard.

The next day, a 20-year-old man opened fire at random in two villages in central Serbia, killing eight people. He and the boy in the elementary school attack were arrested.

As the country struggles to come to terms with what happened, authorities have vowed to crack down on firearms and say they will increase safety in schools and across the country.

“We invite all citizens who have illegal weapons to respond to this call, to go to the nearest police station and surrender weapons that do not have the appropriate documents,” said police official Jelena Lakicevic.

Voluntary surrender applies to all firearms, explosive devices, weapon parts and ammunition illegally stored at home, Lakicevic said.