A student has shot and seriously wounded a teacher in an incident at an elementary school in the Bosnian town of Lukavac, a little more than a month after a teen in neighboring Serbia killed eight fellow students and a security guard at a school.
Police in the northeastern city said a child under the age of 14 had been apprehended in the shooting on June 14 and the situation was under control.
"There are no children [wounded], so I ask parents to control their panic. The perpetrator is a minor child and he was immediately arrested. A difficult day," Lukavac Mayor Edin Delic said on Facebook.
The Tuzla Canton Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP TK) said the shooting at the school was reported around 9 a.m. local time. Police, it said, responded immediately and upon arrival found the suspect, shell casings, and "other items."
Officials did not name the wounded teacher, but his father told local broadcaster N1 that it was his son, English teacher and deputy principal Ismet Osmanovic, who was shot. According to local media, the Tuzla University Clinical Center said in a statement the victim suffered a neck wound and was undergoing surgery.
Ahmed Omerovic, the education minister for Tuzla, told reporters that the suspect was a former student who had recently left.
"The child was transferred to another school from the start of the second semester as a result of a disciplinary measure," Omerovic said, adding that June 14 was the last day of classes.
Mass shootings are comparatively rare in the Balkans, where gun ownership is relatively high despite strict gun laws. The region is awash with illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia.
Security Minister Nenad Nesic said he has requested "urgent action by all competent authorities in order to prevent tragedies like this."
"If we are not able to protect children, what is the purpose of our power?" he said.
"It's obvious that the atmosphere of strife, conflict, and verbal conflict, which was created in society for years, is taking its toll," Nesic added.