This former student of the school, who was 19 years old at the time of the incident, had injured four other people, including a teacher.

A 20-year-old Croatian man was sentenced on Tuesday to 50 years in prison, the maximum sentence in the country, for killing a student and injuring three others, as well as a teacher, at a primary school in Zagreb in late 2024, according to a judicial source.

"The panel of judges found the accused guilty and imposed the most severe criminal penalty provided for by law. He was therefore sentenced to 50 years in prison," the spokesman for the Zagreb Regional Court, Kresimir Devcic, told the press after the verdict was read behind closed doors.

The maximum sentence of 50 years in prison is rarely handed down by the Croatian justice system. The attack, which took place on December 20, 2024, at a school in the Precko district, near the center of the Croatian capital, shocked the nation. Armed with a knife, the assailant, a former student of the school, entered the building and stabbed four students, one of whom, a seven-year-old boy, died at the scene. A teacher was also injured.

The attacker, aged 19 at the time, had attempted suicide. "Given the brutality of the execution of the crime, with a knife, and the numerous stab wounds suffered by the victims, the panel of judges determined that only the most severe sentence, 50 years in prison, can achieve the objectives of prevention," explained Mr. Devcic.

Croatia had not experienced such an incident in a school setting before.