05/01/2023 03:36 pm (act. 05/01/2023 03:40 pm)
©APA/dpa/Oliver Berg
A 1.5-year-old girl was killed in an attack in the Croatian capital Zagreb on Wednesday night. According to Croatian media, a 43-year-old man attacked his ex-partner and her son with an axe. The girl died in hospital the same night, the 41-year-old mother is seriously injured, media reported. The assailant later died in a traffic accident.
The police assume that the perpetrator committed suicide by being shot on purpose. At a news conference on Thursday, police confirmed the media reports. Officers who responded to the woman’s 911 call found the woman and child in critical condition with head injuries at home, sources said.
Police were initially unable to provide information about the motive for the crime, as the woman had not yet been questioned. The family, which had been in contact with the youth assistance office for years, was also known to the police. The aggressor had already been banned from having contact with his ex-wife in the past, but the measure expired in 2021.
The man would have attacked the ex-partner in her house. The mother and son would have suffered head injuries, reported the news portal “24 Sata”, referring to sources at the hospital where they were admitted. The attacker is not the biological father of the dead girl, wrote the news portal “Telegram”.
After the crime, the man fled in his car towards a ring road, where he managed to get out for unknown reasons and continued his escape on foot. He was hit by another vehicle and died at the scene of the accident.