A 20-year old migrant from Afghanistan was fatally shot Tuesday evening in Serbia when hunters apparently thought they had detected a heard of wild boar, according to the Serbian Army.
On his journey to Western Europe, the Afghan man entered Serbia illegally from Bulgaria with five other refugees, when he was shot in the chest in a wooded area near the border at approximately 9:30 pm local, Serbian Army spokesperson Jovan Krivokapic said.
Officials say he died before the ambulance arrived.
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"Members of the army and police who patrol this border region heard the shot, and then found six migrants, one of whom had a gunshot wound in the chest area. They also encountered four hunters at the scene," Jovan Krivokapic, spokesperson of the Serbian Army, told NBC News.
Wild boar hunting season is currently open in Serbia.
According to local media reports, the four hunters claim that they were in their positions in the forest that evening, waiting for a group of boar to appear. They apparently heard crackling in the bushes, before one of them fired his rifle. Only the screams of migrants prevented the others not to shoot as well, realizing that human beings were in the dark. Serbian police are investigating the case.
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"Police officers arrested 39-year old man, who is believed to have shot the migrant and ordered that he remains in detention for 48 hours as police are investigating the case," Krivokapic said.
The event happened in the border zone through, which 150 to 200 new migrants enter Serbia from Bulgaria each day. Currently, there are more than 5,000 migrants in Serbia, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan.
