A knife-wielding assailant attacked a police guard outside the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade overnight, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said. The officer was slightly wounded and the attacker was shot dead by the guard, whom Dacic said acted in self-defense.
Dacic described the attacker as a minor. He said security agencies had monitored the individual as a supporter of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS). According to Dacic, the attacker came from the western Serbian town of Sabac and kept a black flag supporting IS on his Instagram account.
Dacic said the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the assault. Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack and have raised the terrorism threat level to its highest, or "red alert." Dacic said this means tighter security checks and more police at sensitive sites, including infrastructure facilities and places where large crowds gather.
Israel's Foreign Ministry later confirmed an "attempted terrorist attack" near its embassy in Belgrade. It said no personnel were injured and the incident is under investigation.
The attack came days after an early parliamentary election in Serbia and one day after Israel held its parliamentary vote. The report does not give a result for either election.
In June 2024, an attacker with a crossbow seriously wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the same embassy before police shot and killed that attacker. The report says that attacker was a 25-year-old Islamic convert from a village near the capital who had become radicalized.