Students from the Faculty of Philosophy shared on social media that the attackers emerged from the offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
“One female student was seriously injured and is currently at the Clinical Center of Vojvodina with a dislocated jaw and bodily injuries. Several others sustained minor injuries, and doctors are currently assessing their condition,” the students wrote.
According to the students, the perpetrators, armed with baseball bats, chased a group of students who were putting up stickers and stenciling slogans. One slogan “Three Months, Three Bridges” promotes an upcoming protest that will mark three months since the collapse of the railway station awning which killed 15 people.
“A male and female student from the Faculty of Medicine were putting a sticker on a trash can near the Serbian Progressive Party offices when two strongly built men with short hair exited the premises and immediately attacked the male student. They grabbed him by his shirt collar and started choking him. The female student managed to record the incident on her phone, but the attackers grabbed her phone and deleted the recording. The students from the Faculty of Medicine managed to break free and run away, but the attackers quickly returned to the Serbian Progressive Party offices to chase them as well. First on foot and then in a Chevrolet car, nearly hitting two students,” the announcement continued.
According to the attacked students, the same two men, accompanied by two others armed with baseball bats, attacked another group of students near Petefi Šandor Elementary School.
“During that attack, one female student sustained severe physical injuries; she was kicked and punched. Other students managed to escape with minor injuries,” reads the statement.
Novi Sad police detained four young men suspected of last night’s attack on the students in the city center, according to the Razglas portal.
In response to the violent repression, students have announced a protest at 4 PM in front of the Serbian Progressive Party offices on Liberation Boulevard in Novi Sad.
“Yesterday, you call for dialogue, and today, you attack with baseball bats,” stated students from the Academy of Arts, referring to yesterday’s statements by Prime Minister Vučević, President of the National Assembly Brnabić, and President Vučić, who had called for calming tensions.
This morning, the Prime Minister Vučević resigned due to the attacks last night claiming that “politicians must be held accountable.” No one has been criminally charged for the collapse of the recently renovated railway station awning.
A.A, I.K.