Serbia’s president blames opposition after supporter shot and injured outside Parliament
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A video screengrab shows Serbian police officers detaining a man in front of the Parliament building in Belgrade, Serbia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- A man shot and injured a supporter of President Vucic near parliament, where anti-government protests have been ongoing for a year.
- Vucic called the shooting "an act of terrorism", saying the suspect was annoyed by the tents set up by Vucic's supporters.
- Protests were triggered by a train station collapse that killed 16; opposition blames government neglect and corruption (Reuters).
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BELGRADE - A man shot and injured a supporter of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Oct 22 outside the Parliament building in Belgrade where anti-government protests
Mr Vucic told a press conference the shooting was an act of terrorism, playing two police videos in which the suspect said he had taken a gasoline can into one of the tents set up in the area by supporters of Mr Vucic because the tents annoyed him.
“I did this so they (the police) would kill me. I did not know anyone in the tents. I am from Belgrade, and this (the tents) annoys me, I don’t like occupation of the city centre,” 70-year-old Vladan Andjelkovic said in a video, shot while he was under arrest.
He said he was working on his own.
Huge street protests have been going on for a year against Mr Vucic, triggered by the collapse of a train station awning
The shooting took place in a park between the Parliament and Mr Vucic’s office where his supporters have erected tents to block the protesters from approaching the buildings.
Mr Vucic said Andjelkovic entered one of the tents carrying the metal can with gasoline and that Mr Milan Bogdanovic, a government supporter, peered into the tent to see what was going on. Andjelkovic fired shots at him and he fell to the ground.
A video verified by Reuters showed a man hobbling away from the scene and the tent then catching fire.
Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar told reporters that Mr Bogdanovic had a serious wound and would have to be operated on urgently.
Firefighters putting out a fire at a tent outside Serbia’s Parliament building in Belgrade on Oct 22.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mr Vucic said the incident showed the risks posed by the protests.
“There is no doubt that there was a political motivation behind all this,” he said. “It is a miracle that in the past 11 months we did not have any casualties.”
He said the opposition’s campaign against the tents set up in front of the Parliament had influenced Andjelkovic.
“Why did I say that this was a terrorist act - a firearm was used, the goal was to cause a general danger and a political motive where he says that the tents annoyed him,” Mr Vucic said.
Asked to comment on the incident, Mr Savo Manojlovic, of the opposition Move Change party, told Reuters: “The creation of an artificial camp with tents and a landfill in the city centre to provoke further confrontation, hatred and division is the responsibility of the institutions that allowed such misuse.” REUTERS
