World

Armed man 'in Serbian presidency'

by Amitjha | May 21, 2009 at 03:22 am

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News channels from Serbia's capital Belgrade are reporting that a man with two hand grenades has entered the presidential palace and is threatening to blow himself up.

Why he is doing so is not yet clear. Police officials are trying to negotiate with that person.

A man armed with two hand grenades has entered the presidential offices in the Serbian capital Belgrade, say reports.

Serbia's B92 news channel said an unidentified man was at the entrance to the building and police officers were on the scene.

It is not clear whether President Boris Tadic is in the building.

The news comes a day after US Vice-president Joe Biden became the most senior American to visit Serbia since the 1999 conflict in Kosovo.

"A police negotiating team went to the presidency building to try to convince the man to give himself up," a police source told the AFP news agency.

The source said the man had left one grenade at the entrance to the building, on Andricev Venac Square, and gone inside "with the safety pin removed from the second".

The man was "a psychiatric case" and had been isolated by police, Reuters quoted a police officer as saying.

Roads in the area are reported to have been closed.

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Paschen

at 05:02 on May 21st, 2009

More extreme madness today. Sad to see that life has become so undervalued and so disrespected.

Jarrett Martineau

at 12:01 on May 21st, 2009

UPDATE — The man has now been disarmed and taken into custody by police.

President Boris Tadic's office announced the resolution of the standoff, but details were not available. His office said he had entered the building after the incident began, but it did not give his reason for going in while SWAT teams were dealing with the situation.

A black police van with its windows blacked out was seen driving away from the presidency building. Police later said the attacker was taken to a Belgrade detention unit where he will be interrogated by an investigative judge.