A knife-wielding teenager entered a school in the Croatian capital on Friday, fatally stabbing a 7-year-old girl and injuring three other children and their teacher, authorities said.
Preko Elementary School in the Zagreb neighborhood of the same name was attacked around 9:50 a.m. on the last day of school before Christmas. It caters for children between 7 and 15 years of age.
“The attacker is a 19-year-old who is a former student of that school and still lives nearby,” Interior Minister Davor Božinović said. “Eventually he started hurting himself. The police stopped him from killing himself.”
Bozinovic said the attacker had mental health problems and had previously tried to kill himself. “It’s hard to say this person was mentally balanced.”
School attacks 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 a day of mourning on Saturday and canceled Christmas celebrations. Candidates for the upcoming presidential election say they have temporarily suspended their campaigns because of the tragedy.
“There are no words to describe the grief of the terrible and unimaginable tragedy that shocked us all today,” said President Zoran Milanovic. Milanovic called for unity and efforts to ensure that schools are safe and caring places for children.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a government session that he was “horrified” by the attack and that authorities were still working to determine what happened.
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