Police officer shoots man who attacked him with a crossbow in front of the Israeli embassy

A police officer killed a person who attacked him with a crossbow on Saturday in front of the Israeli Embassy in Belgradethe capital of Serbia, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

The attack occurred around 11 a.m. local time, when a person “whose identity is being investigated, shot a gendarmerie officer with a crossbowwho was on duty outside the Israeli embassy and hit him in the neck,” the minister said.

The officer used his weapon “in self-defense” and the attacker “died from his injuries,” he added in his statement.

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic condemned the “heinous act of terror” which took place in the Balkan state with more than 6.5 million inhabitants.

“This was an act of madness that cannot be attributed to any religion or nation. It is the crime of an individual,” he said, according to the Beta news agency.

Dacic, in turn, described the attack as “a terrorist act directed against the Serbian state and a member of the gendarmerie.” A special prosecutor’s office is now dealing with the case.

The authorities stated that some people who are known to the security authorities and suspected of being connected to the attack were arrested.

“There is already a suspicion that these are people who are already known to the security services, and we are talk about the Wahhabi movement,” said Dacic, an ultra-conservative branch of Islam that is popular in Saudi Arabia.

He explained that several people had been arrested “preventively” and security measures in the city had been increased.

The injured police officer was taken to hospital where he will undergo surgery.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the “attempted terrorist attack” and said that no embassy staff were injured.

Serbia has continued its arms sales to Israel even after the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Israel on October 7.