A bizarre attack on Israel’s embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade has unfolded Saturday, and ended in the death of the attacker, and a wounded security guard now fighting for his life.
Serbia’s interior ministry is calling the incident a terrorist attack which involved a man armed with a crossbow shooting a police officer, wounding him in the neck, before the officer shot the assailant dead. Authorities are in the aftermath looking at links to Islamic extremism.
The Serbian government statement indicated the officer who had been protecting the embassy “used a weapon in self-defense to shoot the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries.”
A bolt was fired from the crossbow, and lodged in the officer’s neck. He was still conscious but described as in life-threatening condition upon being transported to the hospital.
Authorities are describing that the assault was likely motivated by Islamic terror. According to a statement:
“There are some indications that [those arrested] are already known to security services and we are talking about the Wahhabi organization, but that is not confirmed,” Dačić said, referring to a strict school of Islam.
The officer was in a guard house and the attacker had approached him several times asking him where a museum was. He carried a bag from which at one point he took the crossbow and shot the guard, Dačić said.