At least three dead in Bosnian school shooting | Gun violence news

The suspect, a school employee, opened fire with an automatic rifle and attempted suicide, police said.

At least three school staff members were killed in a shooting at a school in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, authorities said.

Among those killed in Wednesday's shooting were the principal, secretary and a teacher at the Sanski Most High School Center, Adnan Beganovic, an Interior Ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

The shooting occurred at 10:15 a.m. (08:15 GMT). Reuters news agency reported, citing police, that a school employee was involved in the shooting.

The town of Sanski Most is located about 200 km northwest of the capital Sarajevo.

Schools in Bosnia are closed for summer vacation, meaning there were no classes taking place at the time of the shooting. Although no students were present, teachers were meeting to prepare for the upcoming school year.

The suspect “killed three school employees with a military weapon, an automatic rifle, and tried to kill himself,” Beganovic said on national radio.

The injured man is in serious condition and was taken to the hospital in Banja Luka.

The employee is said to have had an argument with the school administration, reported the Associated Press news agency. Police have not yet given a motive for the attack.

Police and rescue services were deployed on site.

Since the wars of the 1990s that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Balkans have been rife with small arms and weapons, especially in Bosnia, a country of about 3.5 million people. However, mass shootings are rare.

According to a 2010 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there were approximately 750,000 illegally owned weapons in Bosnia.

The last school shooting in the Balkans occurred in May 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia, when a teenager shot and killed ten people, including nine classmates.