Useful information
Prime News delivers timely, accurate news and insights on global events, politics, business, and technology
A teenager with a knife entered a school in Croatia’s capital on Friday, stabbing a 7-year-old girl to death and wounding three more children and their teacher, authorities said.
The attack took place around 9:50 a.m. on the last day of school before Christmas at the Precko primary school in the Zagreb neighborhood of the same name. Children between 7 and 15 years old attend the school.
“The attacker is a 19-year-old young man who was a student at that school and still lives nearby,” said Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic. “At the end he started to hurt himself. “The police stopped him from committing suicide.”
Bozinovic said the attacker had mental health problems and had previously attempted suicide.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
“It’s hard to say this person was mentally balanced,” he said.
“Five people have been hospitalized and their lives are not in danger,” Health Minister Irena Hrstic told the media. That number includes the alleged attacker.
Attacks on schools are rare in Croatia and the Balkans as a whole, although in May 2023, a teenager from neighboring Serbia opened fire at a school in the capital Belgrade, killing nine fellow students and a school guard. .
Video footage broadcast by Croatian media on Friday showed children fleeing the school building and a medical helicopter landing in the school yard.
Croatian authorities declared Saturday a day of mourning and canceled some Christmas festivities. Candidates in the upcoming presidential election said they would temporarily suspend their campaigns because of the tragedy.
President Zoran Milanovic said that “there are no words to describe the pain at the horrible and unthinkable tragedy that shocked us all today.”
Milanovic called for unity and an effort to ensure that schools are a safe and worry-free place for children.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a government session that he was “horrified” by the attack and that authorities are still working to determine exactly what happened.
—
Associated Press writers Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.
— With a Reuters file
© 2024 The Canadian Press
