dpa
Tel Aviv
A man who attacked a guard at the Israeli embassy in Belgrade with a crossbow has been shot and fatally wounded by the guard, Serbian public broadcaster RTS reported on Saturday, citing state prosecutors.
The guard, a member of Serbia’s Gendarmery, was injured in the neck and was taken to hospital, where he underwent an operation. His condition was reported to be stable.
His assailant, a 25-year-old man, was from the Belgrade area and was a Serbian convert to Islam, according to Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dai, RTS reported.
His last address was in Novi Pazar, the capital of the Serbian region of Sand?ak, where most of the population are Muslim Bosniaks. Ethnic Serbs are almost exclusively Orthodox Christians.
Prime Minister Milo Vuevi condemned it as an “abhorrent terrorist attack.”
“The state of Serbia is in a position to react decisively to the threat from terrorism,” he said, according to the RTS report.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack.
No embassy staff had been injured, but the embassy had been closed temporarily, it said.
The guard had acted in self-defence, Serbian state prosecutors said.
Investigations were proceeding into the identity of the assailant and the details surrounding the attack.
