ZAGREB (AFP) – Croatian pupils returned to school yesterday after the winter break with tightened security measures in place after a seven-year-old was killed by an intruder last month.
On December 20 last year, the last day of school before the holidays, a 19-year-old man entered a primary school in the capital, Zagreb, and stabbed four students and a female teacher.
One of the victims of the unprecedented attack, aged seven, died on the spot.
The man, who authorities said had a record of mental disorders and was a former pupil at the school, wounded himself before being arrested.
In line with a decision from the education ministry, as of yesterday Croatia’s more than 1,300 primary and secondary schools will be locked during school hours except for 30 minutes before the classes start and 15 minutes after they end.
Pupils are not allowed to leave the school premises during breaks.
Parents and other visitors are allowed to enter school only with prior notice. Staff will be on duty at entrances during school hours.
Education Minister Radovan Fuchs pledged at the weekend to ensure that “in all Croatia’s schools children can feel safe”.
The December 20 attack was not a “terrorist act, neither an act of a religious fanatic”, he told RTL television.
“It was a tragic act committed by a mentally ill person.”
Some critics said locking schools will not solve the safety problem.
“We should work on preventive measures within society. Next time such an attack could happen in a health facility or elsewhere and we cannot lock everything,” Sanja, the mother of a 12-year-old pupil who declined to give her family name, told AFP.
The attack sparked a protest by several thousand people in Zagreb in late December, with demonstrators calling for better safety at schools.
