Serbia’s capital Belgrade was targeted by a slew of bomb threats on Monday, police have said.
Life threats were made against schools, bridges, shopping centres, restaurants, the city zoo, and a football match, bringing the rush hour of Belgrade traffic to a standstill.
Serbian Police informed in a statement that no explosive devices were discovered after more than 90 different searches, and it is not identified who is behind the purported emailed threats.
Further, it informed around a hundred primary schools were evacuated after the threats and several restaurants, such as McDonald’s outlets and shopping malls, the zoo, the city airport, railway stations, and a water supply company.
The local media are reporting a bomb threat that targeted the Russian embassy.
A top division football game was also postponed as police searched the stadium.
“Even though the threats seem to be false, we should not take them lightly,” said First Deputy Prime Minister Branko Ružić.
National airline Air Serbia has been facing an ongoing series of bomb threats on its flights to Moscow in the past months after being the only European company, besides Turkish carriers, to maintain regular flights to Russia despite a Western flight embargo.
Serbia remains one of a handful of European countries which have not introduced any sanctions against the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Serbia’s Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin claimed that the country is “the target of a special warfare that comes from different European addresses.”
