Serbia’s schooling minister resigns following mass shootings

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s schooling minister submitted his resignation Sunday following two mass shootings, one in every of them at a main faculty, left 17 folks useless, whereas the European nation’s authorities urged residents to show in all unregistered weapons or run the chance of a jail sentence.

Education Minister Branko Ruzic is the primary Serbian official to resign over the shootings regardless of widespread requires extra senior officers to step down within the wake of the back-to-back bloodshed on Wednesday and Thursday. Ruzic cited the “catastrophic tragedy that has engulfed our country” in explaining his choice.

Soon after the primary assault, on the faculty in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, Ruzic was fast in charge “the cancerous, pernicious influence of the internet, video games, so-called Western values.” Such criticism is frequent within the Blakan nation, the place pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment have thrived lately.

On Sunday, the Interior Ministry mentioned people may hand over illegally owned weapons between Monday and June eighth with out going through any expenses. Those who ignore the order will face prosecution and if convicted, doubtlessly years behind bars, authorities officers have warned.

Police mentioned the amnesty would apply to weapons, grenades, ammunition and different weaponry.

In his third handle to the nation because the killings, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned, “We expect to get millions of bullets that way.”

PHOTOS: Serbia mourns taking pictures victims, prepares unlawful gun amnesty

The populist chief criticized the opposition for planning protests towards his authorities for the best way it dealt with the disaster, saying “it’s done nowhere in the world. It’s bad for the country.”

Weekend funerals have been held for the victims of the shootings on the Belgrade faculty on Wednesday and in a rural space south of the capital metropolis on Thursday evening. The violence, which additionally wounded 21 folks, has shocked and anguished the Balkan nation.

While Serbia is awash with weapons and tops the European checklist of registered arms per capita, it’s no stranger to disaster conditions following the wars of the Nineties that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The most up-to-date earlier mass taking pictures was in 2013, when a struggle veteran killed 13 folks. The assailant within the nation’s first mass faculty taking pictures was a 13-year-old boy who opened hearth on his fellow college students, killing seven women, a boy and a college guard.

The subsequent day, a 20-year-old man fired randomly in two villages in central Serbia, killing eight folks. Both he and the boy within the main faculty assault have been apprehended.

While the nation struggles to return to phrases with what occurred, authorities promised a gun crackdown and mentioned they might increase safety in colleges and all around the state.

“We invite all citizens who possess illegal weapons to respond to this call, to go to the nearest police station and hand in weapons for which they do not have proper documents,” police official Jelena Lakicevic mentioned.

The voluntary give up applies to all firearms, explosive units, weapon elements and ammunition that individuals hold illegally at their houses, Lakicevic mentioned.