Three staff members of a high school in Sanski Most, a town in western Bosnia, were killed on Wednesday when a school employee opened fire, according to police reports. The incident occurred at 10:15 a.m. when the assailant, armed with an automatic rifle, shot the school dean, the secretary, and a teacher. The shooter then attempted to take his own life, leaving him gravely injured.
Police spokesperson Adnan Beganovic stated that the suspect has been transferred to a hospital in Banja Luka for emergency treatment, and an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
The school was closed for summer holidays at the time, so no students were present. N1 TV, citing witnesses, reported that the shooter, a janitor with a history of conflicts with school management and facing disciplinary actions, targeted specific individuals. Reuters was unable to independently verify this report.
Mass shootings are relatively uncommon in the Western Balkans, although the region still has a significant number of privately owned weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s. In a similar incident in July, a war veteran in neighboring Croatia shot and killed five people, including his mother, in a nursing home, injuring six others.