Belgrade: teen attacks guard at Israeli embassy – Serbia raises terror alert to red
A minor attacked a gendarme outside the Israeli embassy with knives and was shot dead. Interior Minister Dačić speaks of a terrorist attack by an Islamic State supporter.
Symbolic image · Photo: Srđan Popović / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, at around 00:15, a minor attacked a Gendarmerie officer outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade with two knives. According to Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, the officer shot the assailant dead in self-defence. He suffered a minor knife wound to the face and was expected to be discharged from hospital the same day. The National reported the attacker was 16; his identity has not been officially released.
Dačić called it a terrorist attack. Security services had been monitoring the youth, who he said was a supporter of the Islamic State group and displayed a black flag with IS symbols on Instagram. Serbia raised its terror threat level to red, the highest, with more checks and police at infrastructure and crowded places.
The investigation is ongoing. In June 2024, an attacker wounded a guard with a crossbow outside the same embassy and was shot dead. The attack comes during a political transition: in the October 25 parliamentary election, the Student List defeated Aleksandar Vučić's camp, and a new government has yet to be formed.