BELGRADE, Serbia — An attacker with a crossbow wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade on Saturday, Serbia’s Inner Ministry mentioned.
The officer spoke back through fatally taking pictures the assailant.
Each Serbian and Israeli officers mentioned preliminary indications pointed to terrorism as a purpose.
Inner Minister Ivica Dacic mentioned in a commentary that the attacker fired a bolt on the officer, hitting him within the neck.
He mentioned the officer upcoming “used a weapon in self-defense to shoot the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries.”
The policeman used to be mindful when he used to be transported to Belgrade’s major disaster medical institution and underwent an operation to take away the bolt from his neck. Sanatorium officers mentioned he used to be solid next surgical procedure.
Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic visited the wounded officer within the medical institution, promising a sweeping crackdown towards “terrorists.”
“We are hunting them down,” he mentioned. “We will have no mercy for terrorism in Serbia.”
A spokesman with the Israeli Ministry of International Affairs mentioned that “today there was an attempted terrorist attack in the vicinity of the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade.” The spokesman mentioned the embassy is closed and deny worker of the embassy used to be injured.
Israel’s ambassador to Belgrade, Yahel Vilan, mentioned he used to be deeply surprised “by the terrorist attack” in entrance of the embassy.
He expressed gratitude for the Serbian police officer “who courageously prevented the attack” and mentioned he’s “convinced that the investigation by the competent authorities of this shameful attack will identify all responsible persons and further contribute to the preservation of Serbia as a safe country.”
Minister Dacic instructed journalists that an investigation used to be ongoing, however “there are now all indications that the motives relate to terrorism. Because there is no other motive why someone would attack a gendarme outside the Israeli Embassy.”
Dacic recognized the attacker as a 25-year-old Serb who transformed to Islam.
Police are investigating his conceivable community and ties with international terrorist teams next someone else used to be arrested close the scene of the taking pictures, he added.
“There are indications that those are individuals already known to the security services … the Wahhabi movement,” mentioned Dacic, regarding the hard-line Islamist motion.
Government raised the protection alert in Belgrade, together with for international embassies and executive structures but additionally folk parks corresponding to buying groceries shops and alternative busy grounds.
Israel’s embassy is positioned now not a long way from the U.S. Embassy in an upscale Belgrade district.
It’s upheld through an elite police unit with officials armed with automated guns.
Serbia has maintained similar family members with Israel right through the struggle in Gaza.
