A knife-wielding teenager entered a school in the Croatian capital on Friday, stabbed a 7-year-old girl to death and wounded three other children and their teacher, Croatian authorities said.
The attack occurred around 9:50 a.m. on the last day of school before Christmas at Preko Primary School in the Zagreb neighborhood of the same name. Children between the ages of 7 and 15 go to school.
Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said, “The attacker is 19 years old, a former student of that school and still lives nearby.” “In the end, he started injuring himself. The police prevented him from (dying) by suicide.”
Bozinovic said the attacker had mental health problems and had made a previous attempt to kill himself.
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He added: “It is difficult to say that this person was mentally balanced.”
“Five people have been taken to hospital and their lives are not in danger,” Health Minister Irina Hrstic told the media. This number includes the suspected attacker.
School attacks are rare in Croatia and the Balkan region as a whole, although in May 2023, a teenager in neighboring Serbia opened fire on a school in the capital Belgrade, killing nine fellow students and a school guard.
Video footage broadcast by Croatian media on Friday showed children escaping from the school building and a medical helicopter landing in the school yard.
The authorities in Croatia declared a day of mourning on Saturday and canceled some Christmas celebrations. Candidates for the upcoming presidential elections said they had temporarily suspended their election campaigns due to the tragedy.
President Zoran Milanović said: “There are no words to describe the sadness at the horrific and unimaginable tragedy that has shocked us all today.”
Milanovic called for unity and efforts to ensure that schools are a safe and carefree place for children.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a government session that he was “appalled” by the attack and that authorities were still working to determine exactly what happened.
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Associated Press writers Jovana Cek and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this story.
– With file from Reuters
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
