Crossbow attacker wounds police officer guarding Israel’s embassy in Serbia

An attacker with a crossbow has wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, Serbia’s interior ministry said.

The officer responded by fatally shooting the attacker.

Both Serbian and Israeli officials said that initial indications are that it was a terror-motivated attack.

Interior minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement that the attacker fired a bolt at the officer, hitting him in the neck.

He said the officer than “used a weapon in self-defence to shoot the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries”.

The police officer was conscious when he was transported to Belgrade’s main emergency hospital, where he underwent an operation to remove the bolt from his neck. Hospital officials said he was stable after surgery.

A spokesman with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “today there was an attempted terrorist attack in the vicinity of the Israeli embassy in Belgrade”.

The spokesman said the embassy is closed and no employee of the embassy was injured.

Mr Dacic told reporters that “we are still talking about possible motives”.

However, he added: “There are now all indications that the motives relate to terrorism. Because there is no other motive why someone would attack a gendarme outside the Israeli embassy.”

He said one person was arrested near the scene of the shooting. Police are investigating a possible network and ties with foreign terrorist groups, he added.

“There are indications that those are individuals already known to the security services… the Wahhabi movement,” said Mr Dacic, referring to the hard-line Islamist movement. “But this still has not been confirmed.”

The identity of the attacker is still being determined.

Authorities raised the security alert in Belgrade, including for foreign embassies and government buildings but also public places such as shopping centres and other busy areas.

Serbia has maintained close relations with Israel during the war in Gaza.