(Vatican Radio) A 60-year-old war veteran has killed 13 people in a shooting spree
near Serbia's capital Belgrade,including his own son, mother and a two-year-old cousin,
local police said. Serbian officials said Ljubisa Bogdanovic took his handgun to
kill in total six men, six women and the toddler in a predawn house-to-house rampage
in the Serbian village of Velika Ivanca. Villagers claimed Bogdanovic first killed
his son before leaving the house. He then began shooting other family members
and neighbors, some of whom were still asleep in this usually quite town, some 50
kilometers southeast of the capital Belgrade. The gunman also tried to kill his
wife and himself. Both were rushed to hospital in serious condition. The visibly
shocked police chief Milorad Veljovic told reporters on the scene that his team is
still investigating why the shooting took place. "We want to know the motive for
these terrible murders, we're all just stunned about this tragedy," he said. Veljovic
explained that Bogdanovic came from "a quiet family and had no criminal record." He
said, "Those who were killed in five houses were mainly his relatives and neighbors.
" Serbian media have reported that Bogdanovic had lost his job last year and was
a veteran of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, having fought in Croatia in 1992. The
Serbian government held an emergency session and was expected to proclaim a day of
national mourning. Tuesday's shooting has underscored concerns about the stockpiles
of weapons leftover from the war and the many people who possess a firearm as a form
of personal protection. The last mass murder in Serbia took place in 2007 in the
eastern village of Jabukovac, where a man killed nine people. Listen to this report
by Stefan Bos