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After the two massacres in recent
days, with a total toll of 17 dead and 21 wounded, episodes of
emulation are multiplying in Serbia, as well as in other
countries in the region, while police forces have greatly
accentuated their activities directed at confiscating illegally
held weapons and ammunition. In Belgrade in recent hours a
41-year-old man was arrested who, in a message posted on social
media, had threatened to take a rifle and kill all the
inhabitants of Ruma, a town not far from the capital. In Bosnia
and Herzegovina, a resident of Banovici (center) who, under the
effects of alcohol, threatened to carry out "a massacre like the
one in Belgrade" and informed the police of his intentions,
ended up in handcuffs. In Skopje, capital of northern Macedonia,
two incidents occurred in as many city schools. In the first, a
16-year-old student who had posted a message on social media
with death threats against a teacher was detained. In the
second, a juvenile student was summoned by police after he
pulled a toy gun out of his backpack during class time and
pointed it at his classmates and teacher. On May 3, a
13-year-old boy, shooting at a Belgrade elementary school with
his father's gun, killed eight of his peers and a custodian,
injuring six other pupils and a teacher. Less than 48 hours
later, a 21-year-old man, firing from a car driven by an
accomplice, killed eight people and wounded 14 others in three
villages not far from Mladenovac, a town some 60 km south of
Belgrade. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced
draconian measures directed at intensifying controls and
significantly reducing the large amount of weapons still in
circulation in Serbia, a legacy--as in other countries in the
region--of the armed conflicts of the 1990s in the former
Yugoslavia. Today in Serbia on the third and final day of
national mourning, funerals are scheduled for several victims of
the two massacres that rocked the country. In solidarity,
Montenegro has also proclaimed national mourning for today.
