The Interior Ministry informed today that two of the attackers who injured three police officers believing them to be kidnappers – the poor neighborhood where some children face being forced to beg in Skopje or even across Europe was rife at the time with speculation of gangs coming from outside and snatching children.

The three persons who were attacked, one of whom sustained life threatening injuries, were off duty police officers driving in a Hyundai car with no license plates. A group of citizens from Shuto Orizari, two of whom were also police, saw the car, found it suspicious, and beat up those inside. According to some reports, the officers in the car had weapons and even masks.

The two officers who were part of the attack are charged, along with five others, of serious assault. They believed that the three victims allegedly kidnapped a child from the Shuto Orizari neighborhood, forcibly took the men out of the vehicle and punched and kicked them, the Interior Ministry informed.