麻豆影视

World

    • 2 mass shootings in 2 days plunge Serbia into shock, dismay

    Share
    BELGRADE, Serbia -

    The first shooting left Serbia weeping. The second set off waves of soul-searching in a deeply divided nation, awash in weaponry, where war criminals are glorified and memories run deep of years of civil war.

    Two mass killings in two days. Nineteen people dead and 21 injured.

    "We walked around like zombies for 24 hours, not believing what has happened and looking for reasons," President Aleksandar Vucic, a populist authoritarian who began his political career as a far-right Serbian nationalist during the Yugoslav civil wars, said Friday in a nationwide TV address.

    The back-to-back bloodshed sent shockwaves through a Balkan nation scarred by wars, but unused to mass murders. Though Serbia is full of weapons left over from the conflicts of the 1990s, the last mass shooting before this week was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

    In Thursday's attack, a gunman apparently firing at random killed eight people and wounded 14 in two Serbian villages, authorities said, shaking a nation still in the throes of grief over another mass shooting a day earlier. Police arrested a suspect Friday after an all-night search.

    Vucic called the shootings an attack on the whole nation -- and said the person arrested wore a T-shirt bearing a pro-Nazi slogan although he did not shed light on a motive.

    The slayings came a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father's guns to kill eight fellow students and a guard at a school in Belgrade, the capital.

    Public figures, politicians and experts appeared successively on TV Friday, desperately trying to explain the tragedies.

    "This is a moment when a nation decides whether it will go along a healing path," actor Srdjan Timarov said on N1 television. "The only other way is to declare capitulation."

    As a nationwide period of mourning began, TV screens were filled with people wearing black and music was banned from the airwaves as well as in cafes and restaurants. People lined up in Belgrade to donate blood, responding to an appeal for supplies needed to treat the wounded.

    The assailant in Thursday's attack shot people in two villages near Mladenovac, a municipality located about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the capital, police said. Vucic said the gunman targeted people "wherever they were."

    In the village of Dubona, blood stained a schoolyard where some of the shots were fired and also the ground near a bench where residents often sit to share a beer and chat.

    "I heard some tak-tak-tak sounds," recalled Milan Prokic, a Dubona resident. Prokic said he first thought people were shooting to celebrate a birth, as is tradition in Serbia.

    "But it wasn't that. Shame, great shame," Prokic added.

    Police said a suspect, identified by the initials U.B., was arrested in Vinjiste, a village 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Belgrade. Officers searching a relative's home found a large stash of illegal weapons and ammunition, state broadcaster RTS reported.

    Authorities released a photo showing a young man in a police car in a blue T-shirt with the slogan "Generation 88" on it. The double eights are often used as shorthand for "Heil Hitler" since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

    Vucic said the suspect repeated the word "disparagement" but it wasn't clear what he meant.

    The president vowed in an address to the nation that the suspect "will never again see the light of the day." He referred to the attack as an act of terror and announced tougher gun-control measures, in addition to those proposed by the government a day earlier.

    He called for a moratorium on new licenses for all weapons in the next two years, a review of all current licenses, longer prison sentences for those who break the rules and "fierce" punishment for anyone caught with illegal weapons. But first, police will offer an amnesty to encourage people to hand over illegal guns -- an action that has had limited success in the past.

    "We will disarm Serbia," Vucic promised, saying the government would outline the new rules later Friday.

    Health Minister Danica Grujicic said the wounded included a teenage girl who was hit in the head and another teen who had to have a kidney removed.

    "We haven't seen this since the 1990s (war era)," the minister said. "They are stable for now, but you can never tell for sure with gunshot wounds."

    While the Serbian government sought to crack down on guns and police raced to investigate the fresh violence, the nation started to ask what social factors may have contributed to the mass shootings. Serbia has one of the highest number of firearms per capita in the world, and guns are frequently fired into the air to mark special occasions.

    Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by those weapons coupled with decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s, as well as ongoing economic hardship. Belgrade University psychology professor Dragan Popadic pointed to the violence coursing through society, including harassment of political opponents by ruling populists and aggressive sports hooligans.

    "People suddenly have been shaken into reality and the ocean of violence that we live in, how it has grown over time and how much our society has been neglected for decades," Popadic said after the first shooting. "It is as if flashlights have been lit over our lives and we can no longer just mind our own business."

    Opposition parties called for a march against violence on Monday, urged the government to control media content and demanded the resignations of three ministers.

    "Serbia is not a powder keg. Serbia has exploded," said Marinika Tepic, the vice president of an opposition party.

    Before the second shooting, Serbia spent much of Thursday reeling. Students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, filled streets around the school in central Belgrade as they paid silent homage to slain peers. Serbian teachers' unions announced protests and strikes to warn about a crisis in the school system and demand changes.

    The school attack also left seven people hospitalized, six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, Grujicic said Friday.

    Authorities have said the suspected shooter, Kosta Kecmanovic, is too young to be charged and tried. He has been placed in a mental hospital, and his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public security.

    ------

    Associated Press journalist Sabina Niksic contributed from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    LIVE

    LIVE

    Murray Sinclair鈥檚 family members say the late justice and senator has been laid to rest according to his wishes.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced voters in Cloverdale鈥擫angley City will pick their next member of Parliament on Dec. 16.

    As the possibility of mass deportations looms following Donald Trump's re-election on Tuesday, border towns like the City of Cornwall are preparing for a potential influx of asylum seekers.

    On Friday, the Sarnia Police Service (SPS) received a report of an alleged abduction in the area of Kathleen Avenue and Walnut Avenue.

    It's been a trip to cherish for a group of Canadians visiting Belgium this week to honour the legacy of Indigenous soldiers.

    Canada

    • Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party says a candidate criticized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for "troubling" and "damaging" social media posts is no longer running for the party in the Nov. 26 general election.

    • On Friday, the Sarnia Police Service (SPS) received a report of an alleged abduction in the area of Kathleen Avenue and Walnut Avenue.

    • It's been a trip to cherish for a group of Canadians visiting Belgium this week to honour the legacy of Indigenous soldiers.

    • Winnipeg firefighters rescued and reunited a cat with its owners Saturday after a house fire in the city鈥檚 Burrows neighbourhood.

    World

    Politics

    • LIVE

      LIVE

      Murray Sinclair鈥檚 family members say the late justice and senator has been laid to rest according to his wishes.

    • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced voters in Cloverdale鈥擫angley City will pick their next member of Parliament on Dec. 16.

    Health

    • Researchers say taking a peek inside a person's brain is as difficult as understanding the universe or discovering the ocean in its entirety.

    • B.C. health officials say they have detected Canada's first-ever case of H5 avian influenza in a human.

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    Business

    • Bitcoin hits US$80K. Why Trump is boosting crypto

      Bitcoin on Sunday hit a new record above US$80,000. The world鈥檚 largest cryptocurrency surged in the run-up to Tuesday鈥檚 US presidential election, rose sharply immediately on election night after it became clear Donald Trump would win and has continued rising in the days since his victory.

    • Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia's ports since Monday.

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    Autos

    Local Spotlight

    For the second year in a row, the 鈥楪ift-a-Family鈥 campaign is hoping to make the holidays happier for children and families in need throughout Barrie.

    Some of the most prolific photographers behind CTV Skywatch Pics of the Day use the medium for fun, therapy, and connection.

    A young family from Codroy Valley, N.L., is happy to be on land and resting with their newborn daughter, Miley, after an overwhelming, yet exciting experience at sea.

    As Connor Nijsse prepared to remove some old drywall during his garage renovation, he feared the worst.

    A group of women in Chester, N.S., has been busy on the weekends making quilts 鈥 not for themselves, but for those in need.

    A Vancouver artist whose streetside singing led to a chance encounter with one of the world's biggest musicians is encouraging aspiring performers to try their hand at busking.

    Ten-thousand hand-knit poppies were taken from the Sanctuary Arts Centre and displayed on the fence surrounding the Dartmouth Cenotaph on Monday.

    A Vancouver man is saying goodbye to his nine-to-five and embarking on a road trip from the Canadian Arctic to Antarctica.

    • Environment Canada says heavy rain and winds could cause power outages on Vancouver Island as an "intense" storm system is set to hit the B.C. coast Sunday.

    • The union for locked-out port workers in British Columbia says the BC Maritime Employers Association cut off talks in less than an hour Saturday, refusing to budge on a final offer that the union has so far rejected.

    • Thousands of people are expected to gather in downtown Vancouver on Monday to observe the city鈥檚 100th Remembrance Day ceremony.

    • Taylor Swift鈥檚 Eras Tour is coming to Toronto this month and will likely be the most commercially successful concert series the city has ever seen.

    • Patrons were inside a movie theatre when a suspect fired bullets at the business鈥 doors on Saturday night, before the cinema was shot at again hours later in a second incident, police say.

    • A weapon that posed a 鈥渟ignificant concern鈥 for public safety, with photos allegedly shared across social media, has been confiscated from a Hamilton encampment.

    • A pair of 105-mm howitzers bark constantly as they turn plywood tank targets into kindling kilometres away on the windswept landscape of one of Canada's largest military bases.

    • Over 700 people danced, ate, sang and celebrated Diwali Saturday night at the Genesis Centre in northeast Calgary.

    • On Saturday the City of Calgary held the first of three open houses seeking public input regarding the the intersection and roadways of Sarcee Trail and Bow Trail S.W.

    • Three people, including an eight-month-old have died after a two-vehicle collision on Highway 401 in eastern Ontario Saturday afternoon, according to the Ontario provincial Police (OPP).

    • With CTV broadcasting NFL football games on Sundays this season, 麻豆影视 at Six will be broadcasting live on our website and the 麻豆影视 App.

    • CTVNewsOttawa.ca looks at what's open and closed in Ottawa on Remembrance Day.

    • Despite some opposition, a motion was passed at the party鈥檚 convention in Levis, Que. over the weekend to create a Quebec constitution.

    • The West Island Mission hosted its second food drive Sunday amid increasing demand.

    • Three people from Laval, Que. are dead after an accident on the Ontario highway.

    • The Edmonton Oilers may have found the break they were looking for.

    • A woman is dead after a driver crashed a truck through a Boston Pizza in Fort McMurray late Saturday morning.

    • A national program has been using several methods of investigation since 2007 to identify the skeletal remains of unknown Canadian armed-forces members.

    • Here鈥檚 what鈥檚 opened and closed across the Maritimes on Remembrance Day.

    • Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party says a candidate criticized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for "troubling" and "damaging" social media posts is no longer running for the party in the Nov. 26 general election.

    • LIVE

      LIVE

      Murray Sinclair鈥檚 family members say the late justice and senator has been laid to rest according to his wishes.

    • Winnipeg police have identified two men involved in a stabbing incident earlier this week.

    • The Winnipeg Blue Bombers whipped the Saskatchewan Roughriders 38-22 in Saturday's CFL West Division final to earn their fifth consecutive trip to the Grey Cup.

    • It was a somber day at Mosaic Stadium as members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders officially cleaned out their stalls and closed the book on the 2024 season.

    • Urban municipalities across southern Saskatchewan are preparing for their civic elections on November 13.

    • 麻豆影视 Regina will be airing special coverage of Regina鈥檚 municipal election on Wednesday evening beginning at 9:30 p.m.

    • A man has been charged after a stabbing at an apartment building in Kitchener.

    • The Guelph Police Service is putting out a warning after two deaths in the downtown area.

    • Two new tributes to Canada鈥檚 veterans have been unveiled at the Elmira Cenotaph.

    • It was a somber day at Mosaic Stadium as members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders officially cleaned out their stalls and closed the book on the 2024 season.

    • The Regina Rams claimed the Hardy Cup after a hard fought battle against the Saskatoon Huskies 19-14 on Saturday in the first all Saskatchewan U-Sports western conference final since 2002.

    • Elections Saskatchewan completed the final step in the vote counting process from the provincial election on Saturday.

    • CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca is livestreaming the annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the Sudbury Community Arena starting Monday at 10:30 a.m.

    • Police have arrested a 15-year-old in connection with a break-in and $50,000 in damage done to the Centennial Arena in Elliot Lake in September.

    • On Friday, the Sarnia Police Service (SPS) received a report of an alleged abduction in the area of Kathleen Avenue and Walnut Avenue.

    • Three people were taken to hospital after a plane crashed in the Municipality of Southwest Middlesex.

    • London Knights Logan Hawery and Caleb Mitchell are returning from the U17 World Hockey Challenge with gold medals around their necks.

    • Crews responded to an overnight porch fire at a residence in Orillia, where all occupants managed to escape without injury.

    • A driver is facing multiple charges after a multi-vehicle collision on Highway 400 early Sunday morning.

    • OPP are investigating a Saturday evening incident in Caledon that resulted in one death.

    • For Gene Lotz, the spark of curiosity to delve into the history of those who served in war only began when the answers became difficult to find.

    • One person has been arrested after Chatham-Kent Police Service (CKPS) received multiple complaints about an alleged drunk driver.

    • An individual is dead following a collision involving a motorcycle in Kingsville.

    • Environment Canada says heavy rain and winds could cause power outages on Vancouver Island as an "intense" storm system is set to hit the B.C. coast Sunday.

    • The union for locked-out port workers in British Columbia says the BC Maritime Employers Association cut off talks in less than an hour Saturday, refusing to budge on a final offer that the union has so far rejected.

    • Mounties on Vancouver Island are out with a warning about a "concerning" scam that has recently targeted several victims.

    • The emergency department at South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver, B.C., will be closed for 31 hours this weekend, the second such closure in a week and the third since the start of November.

    • Police in Kamloops, B.C., are reminding parents and guardians to check their children's Halloween candy after receiving a report of a mother finding a razor blade in one of her daughter's treats.

    • More than two years after Alannah Brown and Douglas Barker were found dead north of Penticton, police are asking for help identifying a vehicle they believe was associated with the crime.

    • The Southern Alberta Recreation Association is officially announcing the Town of Taber as next year鈥檚 host for the Southern Alberta Summer Games.

    • The Lethbridge Hurricanes broke open a close game with three goals in the first two minutes of the third period as they defeated the Warriors 7-3 in a game played Friday night in Moose Jaw.

    • There might not a lot snow just yet, but many southern Albertans are still itching to get outdoors.

    • Police have arrested a 15-year-old in connection with a break-in and $50,000 in damage done to the Centennial Arena in Elliot Lake in September.

    • Mayors of the five largest cities in northern Ontario met in North Bay the last two days to discuss a range of critical issues impacting their cities and the region.

    • Residents in the Sault expressed concerns ranging from vandalism to privacy invasions during recent consultations on the city's plan to install automated speed enforcement cameras.

    N.L.

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at 麻豆影视. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.

    Stay Connected
    Follow 麻豆影视