Questions about the country's gun laws are being asked following two separate attacks this week.
The aroma of burning wax wafts up the tree-lined slope of Svetozar Markovic Street in Belgrade's central Vracar district. Eventually, the source of the scent comes into view: votive candles, set against a wall of white flowers.
Now on the weekend of one of Serbia's biggest celebrations - the slava for St George - the country is in mourning. Not just for those who died on Wednesday, but the victims ofThere is also a sense of mourning for Serbia as people had understood it. In this country, schools had been safe and gun crime rare. Now, the two mass shootings have rocked Serbians' long-held beliefs about their society.
For most Serbians, business as usual has been out of the question. "Belgrade never sleeps" is usually a proud boast about the city's proclivity for partying. This weekend, the mood is palpably subdued."You can feel the strange atmosphere - people are sitting with no music or laughter. If it wasn't for foreign customers, we would have very little business," says Voja Cekic, a waiter at a popular bar and restaurant in Belgrade's Old Town.
The question of whether Serbia has a gun problem has been a hot topic following the shootings. A 2018 survey by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey suggested that Serbia had the third-highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, behind only Yemen and the United States. Some official reactions to the shootings have caused unease, such as Education Minister Branko Ruzic identifying "Western values" as an underlying cause. This seems at odds with Serbia's long-stated ambition to join the European Union."Accusing Western values was very shocking," says Zvezdana Kovac, Secretary General of the European Movement in Serbia, which campaigns for EU membership.
But opposition parties are unimpressed. They will march through Belgrade on Monday, protesting against what they view as an attempt by the government to bring in oppressive measures while people are still stunned by the shootings.
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