ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A knife-wielding teenager walked into a school in Croatia’s capital on Friday, stabbed a 7-year-old girl to death and wounded three more children and their teacher, authorities said.
The attack took place around 9:50 a.m. on the last day of school before Christmas at the Precko Elementary School in the Zagreb neighborhood of the same name. It caters for children between the ages of 7 and 15.
“The attacker is a 19-year-old who is a former student of that school and still lives nearby,” said Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic. “Eventually he started injuring himself. Police prevented him from committing suicide.”
Bozinovic said the attacker had mental health problems and had made a previous attempt to kill himself. “It is hard to say this person was mentally balanced.”
School attacks are rare in Croatia and in the Balkans as a whole, although in May 2023, a teenager in neighboring Serbia opened fire at a school in the capital, Belgrade, killing nine fellow students and a school guard.
Video footage broadcast by Croatian media on Friday showed children running away from the school building and a medical helicopter landing in the schoolyard.
Authorities in Croatia declared Saturday a day or mourning and canceled some of the Christmas festivities. Candidates for the upcoming presidential election said they were temporarily suspending their campaigns because of the tragedy.
President Zoran Milanovic said “there are no words to describe the grief over the horrible and unthinkable tragedy that shocked us all today.” Milanovic called for unity and an effort to ensure that schools are a safe and carefree place for children.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a government session that he was “appalled” by the attack and that authorities are still working to determine exactly what happened..
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Associated Press writers Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this story.
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This story has been corrected to make clear that the attack in Serbia was in May 2023.
Police secure access to the elementary school where a 7-year-old girl died and a teacher and five other students were wounded in a knife attack in Zagreb, Croatia, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Damir Krajac)
An ambulance helicopter takes off from the elementary school following a knife attack in Zagreb, Croatia, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Damir Krajac)
Police secure access to the elementary school where a 7-year-old girl died and a teacher and five other students were wounded in a knife attack in Zagreb, Croatia, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Damir Krajac)
Police secure access to the elementary school where a 7-year-old girl died and a teacher and five other students were wounded in a knife attack in Zagreb, Croatia, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ronald Gorsic)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are tacking more losses onto what was already going to be one of their worst weeks of the year. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% Friday as its struggles continue after the Federal Reserve warned it may deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than earlier expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 61 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.9%. Nike helped drag on the market following its latest profit report. But stocks got some relief from an update showing a measure of inflation wasn’t as bad last month as economists expected. Treasury yields eased.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street was poised to open with significant losses on Friday as the possibility of government shutdown right before Christmas came closer to reality after the House resoundingly rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.6% lower.
Lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage before Friday’s midnight deadline, however House Speaker Mike Johnson said he and other Republicans were determined to regroup and come up with another to solution to avoid a shutdown.
It was a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who railed against Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.
Late Thursday's impasse could be a preview of the turbulence ahead when Trump returns to the White House with Republican control of the House and Senate. During his first term, Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season.
“Next year will be a time of huge challenges to the world economy," High Frequency Economics' Carl B. Weinberg wrote in a note to clients, citing U.S. political uncertainty, expected global trade wars and geopolitical uncertainty. “We do not look forward to these changes.”
In premarket trading Friday, FedEx shares jumped 9% after the package delivery company nudged past second-quarter profit projections and announced it would pursue spinning off its freight division into a separate public company.
Nike fell 4.2% after it gave lowered guidance for the current quarter and U.S. Steel slid 7% after it preannounced negative fourth-quarter results.
Markets are also waiting for U.S. personal spending data for November due later in the day.
In Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.9%, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.2% and Germany’s DAX was 1.5% lower.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.3% to 38,701.90 after the release of November inflation data on Friday. Japan's core inflation rate, which excludes fresh food prices, rose 2.7% year-on-year, surpassing expectations.
The data followed the Bank of Japan's decision on Thursday to keep its benchmark rate at 0.25%, which pushed the dollar higher against the Japanese yen.
The dollar was trading at 156.70 yen on Friday, down from 157.43 yen but still higher than the average of 150 yen earlier this month.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.2% to 19,720.70 while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 3,368.07 after China’s central bank kept its loan prime rates unchanged on Friday. The one-year lending rate, which affects corporate and most household loans, remained at 3.1%, while the five-year rate, used as a benchmark for mortgage rates, stayed at 3.6%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 1.2% to 8,067.00. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3% to 2,404.15.
In other dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil gave up 45 cents to $68.93 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 41 cents to $72.47 per barrel.
The euro rose to $1.0401 from $1.0367.
Trader John Romolo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
