<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Tens of thousands of Serbs have joined protests against gun violence in the capital Belgrade and another city after two mass shootings last week.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seventeen people died in the shootings on Wednesday and Thursday, including eight children in a primary school.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The protesters called for the resignation of top government officials and want newspapers and TV stations they say promote violence shut down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Serbia's President, Aleksandar Vucic, condemned the protests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He accused the opposition of capitalising on a national tragedy to promote their own interests. He said he was ready to test his party's popularity at a snap vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I will continue to work and I will never back down before the street and the mob... Whether it will be a reshuffle of the government or an election, we shall see," he said on TV.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The next parliamentary elections are set to take place in 2026.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police were stationed near all of Belgrade's schools as they restarted classes on Monday. The government is planning to recruit more officers to be stationed at schools.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Crowds marched through the centre of the city behind a banner that read "Serbia against violence".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are here because we can't wait any longer. We've waited too long, we've been silent too long, we've turned our heads too long," Marina Vidojevic, a schoolteacher, told the crowd, as quoted by AFP news agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We want safe schools, streets, villages and cities for all children."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thousands also turned out across the northern city of Novi Sad, where protests threw flowers into the Danube river which flows to the capital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The protesters called for the resignation of the interior minister and the head of Serbia's intelligence agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Serbia's Education Minister, Branko Ruzic, stepped down on Sunday, citing the "cataclysmic tragedy" of the recent school massacre in his resignation letter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Serbia has the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, with about 39 out of 100 people owning guns according to a 2018 survey.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Vucic has started a one-month amnesty for surrendering illegal weapons, with people able to drop off their guns to police with no questions asked.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The amnesty will last 30 days.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the first day of the amnesty around 1,500 guns were surrendered, according to Serbian police. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>