Sanski Most school shooting

On the morning of 21 August 2024, a shooting occurred inside the Sanski Most Gymnasium in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mehemed Vukalić, a 62-year-old school janitor, killed three school employees using an automatic rifle before attempting to take his own life by gunshot. He survived the self-inflicted wound and was taken into custody.

At around 10:15 a.m. the janitor arrived at the school on his day off, having previously driven his wife to work and returned home to retrieve an automatic rifle owned by his father along with two ammunition magazines. He reportedly smuggled the weapon and ammunition into the school building concealed in a water pipe. He entered the first-floor offices of the school director and a secretary, killing both with multiple gunshots, then returned to the ground floor where he shot an English teacher. He then attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest, survived, and was taken into custody. Some school employees said the suspect had been involved in disputes with school management and was reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following earlier service in the Yugoslav People's Army.

The three deceased victims were identified as Nijaz Halilović (born 1961), the school director; Gordana Midžan (born 1959), an English teacher; and Nisveta Kljunić (born 1959), a secretary.

In the aftermath, Vukalić was reported to be in stable condition following surgery the day after the shooting. A three-day period of mourning was declared in Sanski Most. On 18 December 2024, he pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and one count of illegal possession of weapons. His trial began at Bihać Cantonal Court in September 2025. During testimony, he stated he had little memory of the shooting, described feeling "delirium" with memory gaps, and said he heard a voice telling him to hurry, which prompted a psychological evaluation. He also issued an apology and said he attempted suicide out of regret after regaining full awareness. In October 2025, two psychological assessors stated the defendant was mentally impaired at the time of the shooting; families of the victims disputed the neutrality of this assessment. On 17 November 2025, Vukalić was sentenced to 42 years' imprisonment.

The case has been described in reporting as occurring amid a wider context of frequent small-arms trafficking in the Balkans since the Yugoslav Wars, with a 2010 United Nations Development Programme study estimating around 750,000 illegally owned weapons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and amid a recent small rise in mass shootings in the region.