Factbox-Serbia school shooting: what are the country’s gun laws?

Police officers secure the area after a 14-year-old boy opened fire on other students and security guards at a school in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Djordje Kojadinovic

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia, where a schoolboy opened fire on his classmates on Wednesday, has an entrenched gun culture, especially in rural areas, but also strict gun control laws.

The entire western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo where ethnic Serbs fought other ethnic groups which together made up former federal Yugoslavia.