At least eight people were killed and 13 injured on Thursday evening by gunshots fired from a car in a town near Belgrade, the second such massacre in Serbia in two days, state television reported.
The assailant used an automatic weapon to fire randomly at people near the town of Mladenovac, about 50 kilometers south of the capital, RTS reported early Friday. Police were looking for the 21-year-old suspect, who fled after the attack, according to the outlet.
No other details were immediately available and police had not released a statement.
A 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns in a school shooting in Belgrade on Wednesday that killed eight of his classmates and a school guard. The bloodshed sent shockwaves through the Balkan nation which was unaccustomed to such mass murder.
Dozens of Serbian students, many dressed in black and carrying flowers, paid silent tribute on Thursday to their comrades killed the day before.
Although awash in weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, mass shootings are still extremely rare — and it was the first school shooting in Serbia’s modern history.
The last mass shooting before this week was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people in a village in central Serbia.
Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic called Thursday’s shooting “a terrorist act”, state media reported.
Special police units and helicopters have been dispatched to the area along with ambulances, he said.
Authorities moved to tighten gun control on Thursday, with police urging citizens to keep their guns in locked places and keep them safe away from children.