At least eight people have been killed and thirteen injured in a shooting in Serbia

A manhunt was underway in Serbia early Friday as police combed forests near the capital Belgrade after state media reported a gunman had killed at least eight people and wounded 13 in the second mass shooting in the Balkans this week.

Hundreds of police officers searched for a 21-year-old suspect, who fled after the attack, the report said. An AP crew on the scene said the area was swarming with police as frightened residents ventured from their homes in the early hours of the morning.

The shooting spread to three separate villages in the area, according to state media.

The incident follows the worst school shooting in Serbia’s recent history, after a 13-year-old killed nine people, including eight fellow students, at a school in central Belgrade on Wednesday.

The shooting spread to three separate villages in the area, according to state media

The successive mass shootings have sent the country into a state of shock, with thousands flocking to makeshift memorials as others line up to donate blood.

As the sun began to rise early Friday, there was a heavy police presence in the area of ​​the latest shooting and a helicopter circled overhead with a floodlight that appeared to be searching for the fugitive gunman, according to an AFP photographer on the scene .

According to RTS, about 600 police officers had been sent to the area, while members of an elite anti-terrorist unit patrolled the highway.

The road to the villages of Malo Orasje and Dubona was also closed by the authorities.

Concerned relatives gathered outside the emergency medical center in Belgrade, where at least eight injured people have been hospitalized, N1 television reported.

Health Minister Danica Grujicic paid a brief visit to the center.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic called the shooting a “terrorist act”, RTS reported.

Serbia begins a three-day mourning period on Friday, during what is normally a festive time in the country with people flocking out and filling cafes to meet friends and family.

Mass school shootings are extremely rare in Serbia and President Aleksandar Vucic called Wednesday’s tragedy “one of the most difficult days” in recent history.

In a national speech following the school shooting, Vucic proposed stricter gun control measures, including a two-year moratorium on licensing firearms.

As the sun began to rise early Friday, there was a heavy police presence in the area of ​​the latest shooting and a helicopter circled overhead with a floodlight that appeared to be searching for the fugitive gunman

Police are active at the location in the aftermath of a shooting in Malo Orasje

The forensic police are operating on the scene

The Home Office has called on all firearm owners to keep their guns locked in safes – and warns that those who fail to comply will have their guns confiscated.

Gun ownership is relatively high in Serbia, where shooting ranges are popular but special permits are required to own firearms. During the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, amid the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, a large number of weapons also circulated in the region.

Vladislav Ribnikar’s primary school remained closed on Thursday, while police guarded the building’s entrance.

Large crowds of mourners continued to flock to the school to pay their respects by placing flowers, toys and candles along the sidewalk.

People in the Croatian capital of Zagreb and the Bosnian Serb administrative capital of Banja Luka also lit candles and laid flowers for the victims.

Masses for the victims were held in Belgrade churches, while the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, called the shooting a “catastrophe, the likes of which has never happened in our country and our homeland.”

In the last mass shooting in the Mladenovac area, a villager killed 13 family members and neighbors in April 2013.