Croatian Police Open Fire on People Smugglers

Two migrant children suffered gunshot wounds while others were injured from reckless driving when Croatian police fired shots to stop people smugglers driving a van near the village of Donji Srb on the border with Bosnia on Wednesday night.

After the police received a report of a van with foreign licence plates, suspected of carrying people from Bosnia into Croatia, and after two unsuccessful attempts to stop the van, the police set up a barrier on the road to stop the van with light and sound signals, Vecernji.ba reported. 

After the driver refused to stop and continued driving towards them, officers fired multiple shots towards the van after which the driver jumped out of the van and ran off.

Police found 29 foreign nationals from multiple countries in the van, including two wounded children, who were transferred to the city of Zadar hospital and are in a stable condition. The others received care in hospitals in Zadar and Gospic.

The surge in illegal migration in Southern and Eastern Europe has caused growing alarm in many parts of Europe, as well as in the Balkan region, which saw huge flows of people in 2015 until it was effectively closed in March 2016.

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