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Police secure access to the elementary school where a 7-year-old girl died and a teacher and five other students were wounded in a knife attack in Zagreb, Croatia, on Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ronald Gorsic)
“The attacker is a 19-year-old who is a former student of that school and still lives nearby,” said Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic. “Eventually he started injuring himself. Police prevented him from committing suicide.”
Bozinovic stated that the attacker was previously registered with mental health issues and had attempted suicide before: “It is difficult to claim that this individual was mentally stable.”
Video footage released by Croatian media showed children running away from the school building and a medical helicopter landing in the schoolyard.
Authorities in Zagreb declared Saturday a day or mourning. President Zoran Milanovic said “there are no words to describe the grief over the horrible and unthinkable tragedy that shocked us all today.” MIlanovic called for unity and an effort to ensure that schools are a safe and careless place for children.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the a government session that he is “appalled” by the attack and that authorities are still working to determine exactly what happened. Plenkovic said several children have been taken to various hospitals in Zagreb.
State HRT television said the attacker entered the school and went straight into the first classroom he found and attacked the children.
School attacks are rare in Croatia. Last May, a teenager in neighboring Serbia opened fire at a school in the capital Belgrade, killing nine fellow students and a school guard.
