Attacker dies after shooting police officer guarding Israeli embassy in Serbia with crossbow

BELGRADE (Reuters) – An attacker who fired a crossbow at a policeman guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade was shot dead on Saturday in what Interior Minister Ivica Dacic described as a terrorist attack against Serbia.

The police officer is in critical condition and will undergo surgery, the Serbian news agency Tanjug Dacic quoted him as saying.

The minister said the attacked police officer was hit in the neck by an arrow and fired several shots at the attacker, killing him.

“This is a terrorist attack against Serbia,” Dacic said in the statement published by Tanjug.

He said several people believed to be connected to the incident had been arrested.

“There are some indications that they (the arrested) are already known to the security services and we are talking about the Wahhabi organization, but this is not confirmed,” Dacic said, referring to a strict Islamic school.

The police officer was in a guardhouse and the attacker approached him several times and asked where a museum was. He was carrying a bag from which he eventually took the crossbow and shot the guard, Dacic said.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac, editing by Alison Williams)