Serbian police killed an attacker outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade on Wednesday after an officer was targeted in a “terrorist attack”, outgoing Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.

“A minor whose identity has yet to be established… attacked a member of the police with two knives while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” Dacic said, also raising the terrorism threat to its highest level.

The interior ministry said in a statement the officer killed the attacker in self-defence but suffered a minor knife wound to the face in the incident just after midnight early  Wednesday morning.

Outside the embassy, AFP journalists saw heavily armed special police guarding its entrance and patrolling the street.

Dacic said security services had been monitoring the attacker, who was “known to be a supporter of the Islamic State” and was believed to be from the western city of Sabac.

“His Instagram profile featured a black flag and the Islamic State emblem,” he added. Dacic said the terrorism threat level had been raised to its highest, or “red alert”.

“This means tighter security checks and an increased police presence at sensitive sites, including infrastructure facilities and places where large crowds gather,” he said.

Israel’s foreign ministry  confirmed in a post on X that no embassy personnel were injured and that it was investigating the incident.

Although such attacks are rare in Serbia, the Israeli embassy in Belgrade has been targeted before.

In June 2024, an attacker armed with a crossbow seriously wounded a police officer guarding the embassy before being shot dead by police.

The attacker was identified at the time as a 25-year-old man from a village near Belgrade who had converted to Islam and later embraced extremist views.

AFP