The Serbian Police shot dead this Saturday an individual armed with a crossbow in front of the Israeli Embassy in the country’s capital, Belgrade, and who managed to seriously injure an agent before being killed.
“Although the officer was injured, he managed to eliminate the attacker and thus prevent the attacker from causing more victims,” police spokesman Veljko Mijailovic said in statements reported by Serbian television B92 about the incident, which occurred at around 11:00 this morning.
The individual has been identified as a “Muslim convert” named Milos Zujovic, 25 years old and also called ‘Saladin’, according to Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.
Although Zujovic, a native of Novi Pazar, was initially believed to have acted alone, Dacic has now said there are “preliminary indicators” that he was linked to the ultra-conservative Wahhabi movement. “We have some suspicions on this matter. We are talking about people who are known to our security services around this movement.”
Dacic has also confirmed the detention of an unspecified number of people for “preventive reasons” and a temporary increase in security in Belgrade.
The policeman was seriously wounded by an arrow to the neck and has undergone surgery, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic later confirmed, declaring the incident a “terrorist attack”, as repeated shortly afterwards by the Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement.
“The Embassy has been closed to the public and no staff members have been injured,” according to the Israeli Ministry.
The agent has been stabilized by the team of surgeons who have closed the wound in the neck of the police officer, who pulled out the arrow with his own hands.
“The operation is over, he is stable and has been sent to intensive care for further treatment,” said Pavle Gregoric, director of the Department of Emergency Surgery at the University Hospital of Serbia.
The city prosecutor, Nenad Stefanovic, has announced that the attacker will undergo an autopsy, after which he will proceed to provide more details of his identity, according to the Tanjug news agency.