BELGRADE: A Serbian police officer on Saturday killed a man who shot him in the neck with a crossbow in front of the Zionist embassy in Belgrade, in what the prime minister called a “terrorist act”. Police identified the assailant as being a “convert” to Islam, who was born in 1999 in the town of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Belgrade.

The attack happened around 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on Saturday morning in the Serbian capital, when the attacker shot the officer who was on duty outside the Zionist embassy. The policeman “used a weapon in self-defense and defeated the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries”, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

Authorities said some arrests had been made and several people known to the security services were suspected of being linked to the attack. Police also said they were carrying out searches in several locations. The officer, who underwent surgery in hospital, was in his guard booth when the attack happened.

According to authorities, the assailant had moved to live in Novi Pazar, which is a historical and political center of the Bosniak Muslim minority in Serbia, and a center of Islam in the country. Dacic told reporters that there were early indications connecting the attack with people suspected of being linked to the Wahhabi movement - an ultra-conservative branch of Islam that dominates in Saudi Arabia.

He said several people had been arrested for “prevention reasons” and that overall security had been stepped up in Belgrade. Special prosecutors had taken over the case, added Dacic.

‘Terrorist act’

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic strongly condemned what he labelled a “heinous terrorist act”. “This was an act of insanity, which cannot be attributed to any religion and any nation. It is a crime of an individual,” he said, according to quotes from the Beta news agency.

The prime minister said his country would firmly respond to the threat of terrorism and stressed Serbian citizens could “feel safe”. The Zionist foreign ministry called it an “attempted terrorist attack in the vicinity” of the country’s embassy in Serbia. “The embassy is closed, and no employee of the embassy was injured”, it said in a statement, adding that the circumstances are still being investigated. The Balkan nation has continued arms sales to the Zionist entity after the war in Gaza. — AFP