A man shoots a security guard at the Israeli embassy in the Serbian capital with a crossbow. The security guard returns fire. Serbia’s interior minister calls it a terrorist attack.
A Serb who converted to Islam shot a Serbian guard at the Israeli embassy in Belgrade with a crossbow. The gendarme, who was hit in the neck by the arrow, responded with a firearm, fatally wounding the attacker, reported state television RTS, citing the prosecutor’s office. The guard from the ranks of the Serbian gendarmerie underwent surgery in hospital and his condition is stable, the report said.
Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic described the attack as a terrorist attack. The attacker was a Serb from the Belgrade area, Dacic said, according to RTS. The 25-year-old had most recently lived in Novi Pazar, the capital of the Serbian region of Sandzak, where the majority of the population are Muslim Bosniaks. The ethnic Serbs are almost exclusively Orthodox Christians.
Prime Minister Milos Vucevic condemned the “heinous terrorist attack” in the strongest possible terms. “The state of Serbia is capable of reacting decisively to the threat of terrorism,” he said, according to RTS. The Israeli Foreign Ministry also spoke of an attempted terrorist act. Embassy staff were not injured and the embassy was temporarily closed.
The attacker died as a result of the injuries the gendarme inflicted on him with his firearm. The security guard acted in self-defense, according to the public prosecutor’s office. The exact circumstances of the attack are still under investigation. The arrow from the gendarme’s crossbow was surgically removed in hospital, RTS reported, citing hospital doctors.
Source: Stern
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