ZAGREB, March 16, 2019 – According to intelligence information, the alleged Christchurch shooter visited Southeast Europe, including Croatia in December 2016, Bulgarian state prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarev said on Friday.
Bulgarian authorities are investigating possible contacts the Australian man suspected of killing 49 people in two New Zealand mosques may have had when he recently visited the Balkans.
The shooter posted a video of the attack in which a Serb nationalist song from the Bosnian war in the 1990s can be heard. He also wrote the names of historical figures and places from Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro on his weapons.
During his stay, the accused man reportedly visited several towns of historic significance, then travelled to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, on November 15. There he rented a car and drove to Hungary.
According to Bulgarian intelligence, the man visited Serbia, Bosnia Montenegro and Croatia in December 2016.
The Croatian Ministry of the Interior on Saturday confirmed that the main suspect of killing 49 people in shootings at two mosques in New Zealand on Friday visited Croatia in late 2016 and early 2017.
“The Croatian Ministry of the Interior has information about movements of the said person in Croatia in December 2016 and January 2017,” spokeswoman for the ministry Marina Mandić told Hina.
A “right-wing extremist” armed with semi-automatic weapons, the 28-year-old suspect rampaged through two mosques in the quiet New Zealand city of Christchurch during afternoon prayers on Friday, killing 49 worshippers and wounding dozens more.
The attack, thought to be the deadliest against Muslims in the West in modern times, was immediately dubbed terrorism by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, as she led a shocked nation on one of its “darkest days.”
More news on the relations between Croatia and New Zealand can be found in the Politics section.
