ZAGREB, November 17, 2019 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Saturday night that the migrant who was injured in the afternoon as police were preventing illegal migration in the Gorski Kotar area sustained a serious injury and that he was undergoing surgery in a Rijeka hospital.
Around 5 p.m., the police were protecting the state border, i.e. preventing a group of illegal migrants from crossing Croatia near Tuhobić, who were most likely trying to reach Slovenia, and one migrant was injured in the process, Božinović told reporters.
According to available information, the injury was probably caused by a firearm. The minister said the county prosecutor's office would investigate and that a Police Directorate team would also inspect the matter.
He talked with the doctors treating the injured migrant and said the injury was serious and that he was being operated on.
Asked if the migrants were armed, Božinović said he could not say at the moment due to the investigation to be carried out on Monday.
The other migrants, about 15 of them, are in a police station, he said.
The migrant wounded during a police operation in the Gorski Kotar region on Saturday has undergone surgery but his condition is critical, so he is still in intensive care, the Rijeka University Hospital said on Sunday.
The patient underwent surgery for a gunshot wound in the torso and abdominal area, the hospital said.
A foreign citizen suspected of staying in Croatia illegally was injured on Saturday afternoon on inaccessible terrain in the Gorski Kotar mountainous region during an operation by police who work on the prevention of illegal migration, the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Police said last night.
More news about migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.
