SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnia police on Thursday detained a 18-year-old boy from the western town of Bihac after he had threatened on social networks to copy the deadly mass school shooting in Serbia on Wednesday that claimed nine lives.
The police of Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation detained the boy under charges of endangering security and terrorism upon the order of the Una-Sana canton prosecution, the police spokesman told Reuters.
The boy, identified by the police by initials A.Z., has reportedly already had a history of threats and bullying on social media. A case against him last year was dropped because he was under age to be prosecuted.
The Mixed secondary school in Bihac, which A.Z. had attended, issued a statement on Thursday telling students and parents not to panic over the threats, saying that the authorities were informed about his status.
“That boy who killed eight children is a mega king for me,” A.Z. wrote on his Instagram account. “I’ve been long preparing something similar for the Bihac school of economics. There will be an unseen massacre in Bihac, I swear on my life!”
A.Z. was referring to a 13-year-old boy, who surrendered on Wednesday in the Serbian capital of Belgrade after taking two of his father’s handguns to kill eight pupils and a security guard in a hallway and history class at their school.
The whole region has been shocked by the school mass shooting in Belgrade. Experts said that even more worrying were reactions by some teenagers on social networks who expressed support and admiration for the young shooter.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Alistair Bell)
