Serbian police have shot dead an attacker who targeted a security officer outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, the country’s capital, prompting authorities to raise the national terrorism threat level to its highest.
Outgoing Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the attacker, whose identity had yet to be established, approached the officer with two knives while shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
According to a statement from the interior ministry, the officer killed the attacker in self-defence but sustained a minor knife wound to the face.
The incident occurred shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
Dacic said security agencies had been monitoring the suspect, who was believed to be from Sabac, a city in western Serbia, and was “known to be a supporter of the Islamic State”.
“His Instagram profile featured a black flag and the Islamic State emblem,” he added.
The minister said the country’s terrorism threat level had been raised to red alert, requiring stricter security checks and increased police deployment at sensitive locations, including critical infrastructure and areas where large crowds gather.
Journalists from the Agence France-Presse observed heavily armed special police officers guarding the Israeli embassy’s entrance and patrolling the surrounding streets after the incident.
Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed in a post on X that no embassy personnel were injured and said it was investigating the incident.
Attacks of this nature are uncommon in Serbia.
However, the Israeli embassy in Belgrade was previously targeted in June 2024, when a man armed with a crossbow seriously wounded a police officer guarding the facility before being shot dead by police.
The attacker was later identified as a 25-year-old man from a village near Belgrade who had converted to Islam and subsequently adopted extremist views.
