Two police officers were wounded in a shooting on Wednesday in the Serbian city of Sombor, in a reported case of domestic violence. The perpetrator of the incident was also injured.
According to the Serbian interior ministry, the incident took place around 4 p.m. local time after police were called to investigate reports of “domestic violence and gunfire” in Sombor.
The police found a 62-year-old man who fired a firearm, and who, despite the police’s warning to drop the gun, fired several shots at the police officers, the ministry said.
After two 34-year-old officers were injured, “members of the Gendarmerie, in self-defense, used their official firearms” and wounded the man, who is hospitalized, it added.
Serbian minister of the interior Bratislav Gasic strongly condemned the attack on police officers “who were performing their official duties and risking their lives, in order to … defend the lives and property of vulnerable citizens, primarily families who called because of domestic violence.”
Serbia recently began a mass firearms control campaign, after shooters killed 18 people and left dozens injured in two separate incidents in early May.
Nine children and a security guard lost their lives at an elementary school in Belgrade at the hands of a 14-year-old shooter, and just one day later a 21-year-old killed eight more people in Mladenovac in central Serbia.
