Serbians march to protest mass shootings

Serbians march in Belgrade demanding resignation of President Aleksandar Vucic after two back-to-back shootings. Pic/PTI

Tens of thousands of people marched through the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and blocked a key bridge Friday in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled the Balkan country and killed 17 people, including many children.

Protesters gathered in front of the Parliament building before filing by the government's headquarters and onto a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. As the demonstrators passed the government buildings, many chanted slogans decrying Serbia's populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, whom they blame for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the mass shootings.

"We're here to express a certain kind of rebellion against everything that currently surrounds us, but primarily the violence that occurred in the last... days, and that is all around us in the past years," Belgrade resident Nevena Matic said.

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The two shootings happened within two days of each other and left 17 people dead and 21 wounded. On May 3, a 13-year-old boy used his father's gun to open fire at his school in central Belgrade. The next day, a 20-year-old man randomly fired at people in a rural area south of the capital.

Opposition parties have accused Vucic's populist government of fueling intolerance and hate speech. Serbia is estimated to be among the top countries in Europe when it comes to the number of guns per capita, many of them left over from the wars in the 1990s.

17
Death toll from shootings in May, including children

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