Serbia’s Interior Ministry said this morning that a member of the Gendarmerie guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade had been targeted in a terrorist attack shortly after midnight. The attacker was shot dead, the terrorism threat level was raised to its highest level, and police presence was stepped up at key locations.
Caretaker Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said that at 00:15, “a minor whose identity has yet to be established, but who is believed to be from Šabac, rushed at a Gendarmerie officer and attacked him with two knives, shouting ‘Allahu akbar’”.
The officer shot and killed the attacker in self-defence, sustaining a minor knife wound to his face, Dačić said in a statement released by the Interior Ministry.
Dačić said an investigation was ongoing and that he had raised the terrorism threat level to red, the highest possible level.
This entails increased security checks and a greater police presence at sites of particular security importance, including infrastructure facilities and places where large numbers of people gather, he said.
According to Dačić, although the attacker’s identity had yet to be established, he had been monitored by the security services and was known to be a supporter of the Islamic State group.
“He displayed a black flag and the Islamic State symbol on his Instagram profile,” Dačić said.
Dačić added that he and Police Director General Dragan Vasiljević had visited the injured officer, who was recovering well and was expected to be discharged later today.
The minor killed outside the Israeli embassy overnight after attacking the officer was born near Šabac and had been arrested in Munich in May on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack there, N1 reported today, citing police sources.
According to those sources, he was deported from Germany to Serbia in July.
During questioning by the German security services, the minor gave a detailed account of how he had become interested online in content related to Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
After making contact with an unidentified person in Germany, he began planning an attack on Munich’s Jewish community.
N1 said it remained unclear how Serbian security services, particularly the Security Information Agency (BIA), had left the minor without surveillance after his return to Serbia, where he subsequently attempted to kill a Gendarmerie officer. The broadcaster said it had sent questions to the Interior Ministry and the BIA.
The Interior Ministry described the incident outside the Israeli embassy as a terrorist attack and said the assailant was a minor from Šabac whose identity was still being established, but who was “known to have been a supporter of Islamic State”.
