Boy shoots several dead in Belgrade classroom

STORY: A 14-year-old boy shot his teacher in a Belgrade classroom on Wednesday (May 3) morning before opening fire on other students and security guards.

Several were killed, Serbia's interior ministry said.

Police said a seventh-grade student had been arrested. Local media are reporting that this was the suspect being taken into custody.

The father of one of the pupils in the class at the time said the boy started "shooting randomly" after shooting the teacher.

Casualties are being treated and an investigation into the motives behind the shooting is under way, police said in a statement.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Serbia, which has very strict gun laws.

But the western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s.

Serbian authorities have issued several amnesties for owners to hand in or register illegal guns.