A 14-year-old boy shot his teacher in a Belgrade classroom on Wednesday morning before opening fire on other students and security guards, killing eight pupils and a security guard, Serbia’s interior ministry said.

Milan Milosevic, the father of one of the pupils at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school, said his daughter was in the class where the gun was fired.

“She managed to escape. (The boy) … first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly,” Milosevic told broadcaster N1.

Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the central Vracar district where the school is located, said doctors were fighting to save the teacher’s life.

The interior ministry statement said eight children and a security guard had been killed and six children had been hospitalised along with the teacher.

Police said a seventh-grade student had been arrested.

“I saw the security guard lying under the table. I saw two girls with blood on their shirts. They say he (the shooter) was quiet and a good pupil. He recently joined their class,” added Milosevic, who had rushed to the school after the shooting.

Officers in helmets and bulletproof vests cordoned off the area around the school.

“I saw kids running out from the school, screaming. Parents came, they were in panic. Later I heard three shots,” a girl who attends a high school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar told state TV Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).

Casualties are being treated and an investigation into the motives behind shooting is under way, police said in a statement.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Serbia, which has very strict gun laws. But the western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s.

Serbian authorities have issued several amnesties for owners to hand in or register illegal guns.

Other mass killings of children around the world

Nashville, Tennessee, March 27, 2023 — A heavily armed 28-year-old fatally shoots three children and three adult staffers at a private Christian school, before police kill the assailant.

Na Klang, Thailand, Oct. 6, 2022 — A former policeman kills 34 people, including 23 children, during a knife and gun rampage at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand, before shooting dead his wife and child at home and turning his weapon on himself.

Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022 — A gunman burst into a classroom in Uvalde, Texas, and shot dead 19 students, aged 9 to 11, along with two teachers.

Kabul, Afghanistan, May 8, 2021 — Three explosions by a school in Kabul killed at least 80 people, most of them schoolgirls.

Santa Fe, Texas, May 18, 2018 — A 17-year-old student opened fire at his high school outside Houston, Texas, killing nine students and a teacher, before surrendering to officers.

Parkland, Florida, Feb. 14, 2018 — A former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killed 14 students and three educators.

Peshawar — Dec. 16, 2014 — Taliban gunmen massacred 134 students and 16 staff in a Peshawar school.

Newtown, Connecticut, Dec. 14, 2012 — A heavily armed gunman killed 20 children from five- to 10-years old and six others, in a rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Utoeya Island, Norway, July 22, 2011 — Far-right Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya island and killed another eight people with a car bomb in Oslo.

Beslan, Russia, Sept. 1, 2004 — 186 children were among 333 hostages who died in a chaotic storming of School No.1 in Beslan, after it was seized by rebels demanding Chechen independence.

Littleton, Colorado, April 20, 1999 — Two student gunmen killed 12 other students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

Dunblane, Scotland, March 13, 1996 — A gunman killed 16 children, mostly five-year-olds, and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.