Uros Zivkovic's Audi Q8 Set on Fire in Cukarica
Two men doused the singer's car with flammable liquid around 4 a.m. and ran off. Djordje David says it feels to him like a state of war.
Singer Uros Zivkovic’s Audi Q8 was set on fire early on November 3 in Belgrade’s Cukarica municipality. Police are looking for two men who, according to neighbors, doused the vehicle with flammable liquid and fled on foot.
Nobody was hurt. Firefighters put out the blaze and kept it from spreading to nearby vehicles, but the front of the car was completely burned. The blast also damaged a courtyard wall, Telegraf.rs reports.
What happened in Cukarica?
The sources disagree on timing. Novosti reports that the fire broke out around 4 a.m., while Telegraf says it started around 4:20. One of the neighbors Telegraf spoke to gave the same time.
Residents were woken by a loud bang that sounded like an explosion. One of them told Telegraf.rs:
It was around 4:20 in the morning, and the neighborhood was completely quiet. Suddenly there was a loud, dull thud, as if something had burst or crashed down hard onto the concrete. I jumped out of bed and went straight to the window. At that moment a huge flame shot up out front and lit up the whole building and the street. Through the smoke I saw two men in dark clothes and hoods running away like mad. They ran down the street and vanished into the dark in a flash. The fire swallowed the front of the car in a second, and we started calling the firefighters in a panic.
Telegraf puts the value of the vehicle at about 100,000 euros. The name of the street has not been published. One neighbor said Zivkovic moved into the area a year to a year and a half ago, and that nothing like this had ever happened on their street.
What is the police doing?
Police spoke with Zivkovic at the scene, and the competent prosecutor’s office has been notified. Investigators are analyzing surveillance camera footage and the movements of the suspects before and after the attack. Telegraf reports that he was also asked whether he had recently received any threatening messages or calls. No motive has been announced so far.
The singer himself made only a brief statement. Novosti carries his comment to the media:
I confirm the information that has been reported, but at this moment I would rather not go into details or comment further on the situation. I ask the media to understand. Thank you all for your concern.
How did colleagues from the Zvezde Granda set react?
Zivkovic came out of the Zvezde Granda talent competition, and fellow performers spoke to reporters before the taping of a new episode at Kosutnjak.
Djordje David says he and Zivkovic are not close friends, but that he knows him as a well-mannered and collegial young man. This is how he described his impression of the attack:
I can’t connect him with this kind of story, I don’t know how it happened, but the people who did it will probably have to answer for it, that’s how it should be. It’s unbelievable to me that someone would take a guy like the one I got to know and set his car on fire. To me this feels like we’re in a state of war, it shocked me.
Host Milan Mitrovic said he did not call Zivkovic so as not to disturb him, but that he sent him a message. He cannot even guess at the reason for the attack, and he told reporters:
This is a big city where many people don’t forgive someone else’s success… That is a job for the police, for the inspectors who handle these cases. We still haven’t found out what happened with Cola to this day… What happened today with Uros is in no way an encouraging or pleasant topic… What matters is that he is okay and that his family is okay.
Dara Bubamara said at the taping that she had not seen the news yet because she had only just gotten up, and then added:
In any case I’m sorry, I don’t know what is going on. I’m a woman of the people, I earn my own money, I haven’t taken money from anyone, I have nothing to do with politics, there’s nobody who could take or burn anything of mine, all I get every day is taxes, I pay taxes non-stop, it’s a disaster, but that’s the law, we’ll see what justice brings.
Aleksandra Mladenovic, Zivkovic’s former girlfriend, told Kurir she heard the news while getting ready at a salon. She has not messaged him yet: “I didn’t text Uros Zivkovic, I’ll wait a bit for everything to calm down.”
The investigation is ongoing, and the suspects have not been identified so far.
