A local employee of the US embassy in Belgrade crashed into a motorcade in which pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic was travelling, the Serbian Interior Minister said Wednesday, describing the incident as a "traffic accident" and not an assassination attempt.
"What had been feared to be an assassination attempt has turned out to be a traffic offence," Interior Minister Dragan Jocic told a press conference in Belgrade.
Jocic said that his office "was informed by the security department of the US embassy [in Belgrade]" about the identity of the driver.
"This was a traffic accident," Jocic said, adding that the driver, Miroslav Cimpl, was to give his official statement to police when his lawyer was present.
Tadic was not injured in the incident, which happened at around 9pm Tuesday in central Belgrade's Kneza Milosa avenue. A black Audi car followed the president's heavily protected motorcade before apparently trying to ram his vehicle.
Jocic explained that Cimpl, who was alone apart from his dog, "had no knowledge that it was a presidential convoy."
"Irritated, he began to maneuver his vehicle, but when he saw the flashing lights of the motorcade, he got scared and that was how the incident happened," Jocic said.
US embassy officials were not available for comment.
Police said earlier that a vehicle had approached the rear of Tadic's convoy, ignoring warnings to keep its distance. One of Tadic's security vehicles responded quickly to the threat by side-swiping the Audi, forcing it to flee the scene.
Tadic himself vowed to press ahead with his reform program despite possible threats.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including