4 May 2023 Serbia shootings

On the evening of the 4 May 2023, eight people were killed in a drive-by shooting in Dubona and Šepšin, Serbia. Fourteen people were injured. The suspect is 21-year-old Serbian man Uroš Blažić.

Police found four bombs, a flare gun, a submachine gun, two silencers, a hunter's knife and ammunition in the house of the suspect's grandfather.

 Background 
Serbian gun laws are strict however Serbia also has one of the world's highest gun ownership rates per person and the highest in Europe. In 2021, it was estimated that there was 39 owned guns every 100 people, Serbia was ranked third on this statistic, only behind the United States and Yemen.  Along with a culture of gun ownership and many houses keeping war trophies, illegal weapons became widespread in certain countries in the Balkans following the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.

Mass shootings are rare in Serbia and the rest of the Balkans. In the 21st century there were previously four mass shootings: the Jabukovac killings in which nine people were killed, the 2013 Velika Ivanča shooting in which 14 people were killed, the 2016 Žitište shooting in which five people were killed and the Belgrade school shooting that happened the day before, in which nine people were killed, leading the government to propose stricter gun laws.

 References 

Category:Murder in 2023
Category:2023 in Europe
Category:2020s mass shootings in Europe
Category:2020s in Serbia

Category:May 2023 events