Two knife attacks in Belgrade, suspect arrested near BIGZ
A 32 year old man was stabbed outside the BIGZ building after a fight. After midnight an 18 year old girl was injured on Brace Krsmanovic Street, and the first suspect was arrested with a knife.
Two knife attacks took place in Belgrade during the night between Thursday and Friday, at two separate locations. In the first, a man was stabbed outside the BIGZ building on Bulevar vojvode Mišića. In the second, an eighteen year old girl was injured on Braće Krsmanović Street, in the Stari grad municipality. Police arrested a suspect in the first attack; in the second, no name of anyone arrested has been released so far.
The clash near BIGZ started as a physical fight between two men on Thursday evening. The suspect, K. K. (21), pulled a knife after the fight and stabbed B. A. (32), leaving him with a stab wound and a laceration to the chest. The injured man was taken to the Emergency Center, where doctors recorded minor injuries. The knife was found on the suspect when he was arrested.
What the arrested man is charged with
A criminal complaint was filed against K. K. on suspicion of committing the offense of inflicting minor bodily injury. Police identified and arrested him shortly after the attack, and the knife was seized as the object used to commit the offense.
That classification is not final and may not stay the same by the end of the proceedings. The prosecution will assess it after an expert examination of the injuries and after gathering statements from witnesses. Using a knife against the chest area typically factors into that assessment. Until a final verdict, K. K. remains a suspect, charged with the offense set out in the complaint against him.
The attack on Braće Krsmanović Street
The second call reached paramedics at 1:17 a.m. An 18 year old girl suffered stab wounds to her legs on Braće Krsmanović Street, in the very center of the city. A crew from the City Institute for Emergency Medical Aid took her to the Emergency Center.
Her condition is stable, and her injuries are described as serious bodily harm. The identity of the injured woman is not being released. Authorities have so far said nothing about the circumstances of the attack, whether the attacker is known, or whether anyone has since been taken into custody.
How many calls did paramedics handle that night?
Belgrade’s emergency medical service handled 135 interventions during that shift. Of those, 36 involved responding to a public location, meaning a street, a venue or the area right outside one.
- two traffic accidents in which people suffered minor injuries
- a large number of people under the influence of alcohol
- calls from patients with heart conditions
Thirty-six interventions at public locations in a single night is not unusual for August in Belgrade, when the city is busier after dark than in winter. Within that total, the two stabbings amount to just two entries, but they are two criminal offenses committed the same night in two different city municipalities.
Where the investigation stands
The case against K. K. is now with the prosecution, which will decide whether to seek pretrial detention and how to proceed. In the Stari grad attack, investigators are first working to establish the attacker’s identity, and only then will a legal classification follow.
We previously reported on similar nighttime violence in Belgrade when three men beat a man in his forties near Bogoslovija, who suffered serious injuries. What the cases share is the setting, a public space, and the timing, late night hours. The difference is that in the BIGZ case an arrest followed the same day, and the knife was seized.
Until the prosecution completes its assessment, guilt cannot be discussed in either case. What has been confirmed so far amounts to two injured people, one arrest and one seized knife.
