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dpatopbilder - Police officers block traffic at an intersection near the Israeli embassy. Photo: Marko Drobnjakovic/AP/dpa
Keystone
A Serbian convert to Islam shot a Serbian guard at the Israeli embassy in Belgrade with a crossbow on Saturday. The gendarme, who was hit in the neck by the arrow, returned the attack with the firearm, fatally injuring the assassin, state television RTS reported, citing the public prosecutor's office. The guard from the ranks of the Serbian gendarmerie was operated on in hospital and his condition was stable, according to the report.
The 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 last lived in Novi Pazar, the main town in the Serbian region of Sandjak, 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 in a position to react decisively to the threat of terrorism," he said, according to RTS. The Israeli Foreign Ministry also spoke of an attempted act of terrorism. Embassy staff were not injured and the embassy was temporarily closed.
The assassin died as a result of the injuries inflicted by the gendarme with his firearm. According to the public prosecutor's office, the guard acted in self-defense. The identity of the assassin and the circumstances of the attack are still under investigation. The arrow from the crossbow was surgically removed from the gendarme in hospital, RTS reported, citing hospital doctors.
29.06.2024, 19:17
