Imogen Braddick
The SunWed, 03 May 2023 17:55 UTC
© APPolice stand outside the Protestant School Neukoelln in Berlin
TWO girls have been seriously injured in a horror knife attack outside a primary school.
The youngsters,
age 7 and 8, were reportedly airlifted to hospital after the rampage outside the Protestant School Neukoelln in Berlin.
One of the girls has been left with life-threatening injuries, while the other was said to be in a "serious" condition.
A 39-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene, police said.
© APA 39-year-old suspect has been arrested after the attack outside the primary school
They said
the circumstances of the attack remained unclear.
According to
Bild, parents were seen crying and hugging their kids as pupils were led outside the school after the building was locked down.
Authorities believe the suspect was acting alone and do not believe the attack was politically or religiously motivated.
The district mayor, Martin Hikel, said he was shocked and "deeply affected" by the attack on the two students.
"For the moment, my thoughts are with the two injured children and the many who had to see what happened," he said.
Comment: The Sun reports on the shooting in Serbia, that also happened on the 3rd of May:
Boy, 13, 'made horror movie kill list before gunning down eight kids' in Serbia school attack
© AFPThe suspect was arrested by cops at the scene
The straight A student, 13, allegedly went armed with two guns, four petrol bombs and a "hit-list" of pupils he wanted to kill in the bloody rampage in Belgrade, Serbia.
Seven girls and one boy - aged between 11 and 14 - died in the attack, as well as a security guard, while six more kids and a teacher were injured and rushed to hospital.
Police identified the shooter as Kosta Kecmanovic, a student at the Vladislav Ribnikar school.
The 13-year-old, who was reportedly considered one of the most talented children in the school, is the son of a well-known radiologist.
The student was reportedly furious that his history teacher had marked his test paper too low for him to pass.
Police said the 13-year-old suspect was armed with four Molotov cocktails and used his dad's gun in the horror rampage in Belgrade.
The suspect's father and mother have been detained.
Serbia's minister of interior Bratislav Gasic said the gun used in the attack was legal, but the father claims in was locked in a safe that his son knew the code to.
Kecmanovic was arrested in the school yard, cops said.
The 13-year-old was reportedly calm when arrested, telling police: "I am a psychopath."
He can't face criminal charges because he is under 14, the Belgrade prosecutor's office said.
The student had been planning the attack for a month and took a chilling hand-written "hit-list" with him, which contained details about how to enter each classroom and and which children to "liquidate", police said.
Chief of Belgrade police Veselin Milic said the plans looked "like a video game or a horror movie".
Authorities said they received a call about the shooting in the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school around 8.40am local time (7.40am GMT).
One student from the school, who has not been named, told Serbian media that the 13-year-old got a poor mark in History and "then he went crazy."
They added: "He shot the history teacher (T. S.) in the office, and then also his friends."
The student said that he always had top marks, adding that "we all call him a nerd."
It is understood the shooter killed a security guard and three girls before breaking into a history class and gunning down five more youngsters, reports Telegraf Serbia.
Local media footage from the scene showed commotion outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.
According to local news outlet Alo, a backpack with three Molotov cocktails and another firearm were found in classroom following the attack.
The victims included a girl with French citizenship, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said.
She provided no other details.
Milan Milosevic, who said his daughter was in a history class when the shooting took place, told N1 television that he rushed out when he heard what had happened.
He said: "I asked where is my child but no one could tell me anything at first.
"Then she called and we found out she was out."
Milosevic said his daughter told him how the shooter first fired at the teacher, then the children who frantically ducked under their desks.
She said he was a quiet boy and a good student.
Unlike in the United States, mass shootings in Serbia and in the wider Balkan region are extremely rare; none were reported at schools in recent years.
In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.
Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, who addressed the nation, said: "Today is one of the toughest days in Serbia's modern history.
"Unfortunately, Serbia is united in grief."
Meanwhile, also today, over in the US, where gun related violence is, sadly, much more commonplace, another shooting was
reported:
One person killed and at least four injured in shooting in midtown Atlanta
© Alex Slitz/APPolice at the scene in midtown Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon.
Atlanta police, who were still searching for the suspect on Wednesday afternoon, said there had been no additional shots fired since the initial shooting unfolded just after 12.30pm in a waiting room on the 11th floor of the Northside Hospital in midtown Atlanta, a commercial area with office buildings and high-rise apartments.
According to Atlanta police chief Darin Schierbaum, all five individuals who were shot were women, CNN reports.
Police have identified the suspect as 24-year old Deion Patterson, who was visiting the hospital for an appointment and was accompanied by his mother. His mother was not injured in the shooting, police said. Patterson's family is currently cooperating with authorities, they said.
Schierbaum told reporters that police believe that Patterson carjacked a vehicle a "short distance" from the shooting scene and was able to flee the area as "police were descending on this area".
"We believe he has left the area ... [and] may not still be in that vehicle," Schierbuam said, adding that police are still looking for the gun that was used in the shooting.
In a statement reported by CNN on Thursday, the US Coast Guard said that Patterson was a former member of the organization. Patterson "entered the Coast Guard in July 2018 and last served as an Electrician's Mate Second Class".
He was discharged from active duty in January 2023, the agency said, adding that it is closely working with authorities in the investigation.
A shelter-in-place advisory put in place earlier by police has been lifted, although residents have still been advised to remain out of the area. A $10,000 award for information leading to Patterson's arrest and indictment has been put out by Crime Stoppers, according to Atlanta police, CNN reports.
Earlier today, dozens of police and fire vehicles had gathered along West Peachtree Street, as officers with assault-style rifles, helmets and vests arrived on scene.
About an hour after the gunfire, a Swat team gathered near the High Art Museum, about three quarters of a mile from the shooting scene, according to video posted by a local CBS affiliate.
Atlanta public schools said several schools in the area would operate on external lockdown for the rest of the day, "out of an abundance of caution."
In an impassioned address on Thursday, the Democratic Georgia senator Raphael Warnock told his senate colleagues his own children were on lockdown earlier this afternoon.
"This is knocking on all of our doors, and I feel it this afternoon in a very real sense. I feel it in my bones because my own two children were on lockdown this afternoon," said Warnock.
"I rise today in shock and sorrow and in grief for my home state and, if I am honest, I rise really with a deep sense of anger about what is happening in our country in the area of gun violence and death," he added.
Cities around the US have been racked by gun violence and mass shootings.
The Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit, defines a mass shooting as any shooting with "a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter".
On Wednesday, the GVA said there had been 189 mass shootings in the US this year.
In a statement, Kris Brown, president of Brady, a national gun violence prevention group, said: "Banks, supermarkets, schools, homes and now medical facilities. People in this country are being gunned down in every public and private location imaginable.
"Unfortunately, no place in America will be safe from gun violence unless we ... enact commonsense legislation that keeps firearms out of the hands of people who wish to commit harm.
"Our hearts go out to the victims and families of yet another senseless, preventable mass shooting."
Comment: The Sun reports on the shooting in Serbia, that also happened on the 3rd of May: Meanwhile, also today, over in the US, where gun related violence is, sadly, much more commonplace, another shooting was reported: