A knife-wielding teenager walked into a school in Croatia’s capital on Friday, stabbed a 7-year-old girl to death and wounded 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 Elementary School in the Zagreb neighbourhood of the same name. Children between the ages of 7 and 15 attend the school.
“The attacker is a 19-year-old who is a former student of that school and still lives nearby,” said Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic. “Eventually he started injuring himself. 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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“It is hard to say this person was mentally balanced,” he said.
“Five persons have been hospitalized and their lives are not in danger,” Health Minister Irena Hrstic told the media. That number includes the suspected attacker.
School attacks are rare in Croatia and in the Balkans as a whole, although in May 2023, a teenager in neighbouring 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 running away from the school building and a medical helicopter landing in the schoolyard.
Authorities in Croatia declared Saturday a day or mourning and cancelled some of the Christmas festivities. Candidates for the upcoming presidential election said they were temporarily suspending their campaigns because of the tragedy.
President Zoran Milanovic said “there are no words to describe the grief over 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 carefree place for children.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a government session that he was “appalled” by the attack and that authorities are still working to determine exactly what happened.
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Associated Press writers Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this story.
— With a file from Reuters
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