The decision by police to wait for backup enabled the identification of all persons who chanted anti-Serb slogans in the eastern town of Borovo on Sunday, a team of police investigators said on Monday.

The national chief of police has sent a team of investigators to the Vukovar-Srijem County Police Department following the posting of footage on social media showing a group of persons shouting inappropriate messages while marching under police escort, according to a statement issued by the Police Directorate.

The investigation found that the police officers on site made a justified decision to place the group under police escort and, given their numbers, request backup to prevent any disorderly behaviour.

“Since there was a great likelihood that the persons in the group might disperse, which would make their identification and further processing difficult, it was necessary to wait for police backup, who arrived from the opposite direction, stopped the group and identified all the persons,” the investigators concluded in their report.

This decision enabled the processing of all the perpetrators, who were taken in for questioning on suspicion of public incitement to violence and hatred. While under police escort, the group moved in silence, but at one point they started chanting inappropriate slogans and did so two or three times, the statement said.

Based on the information gathered, the investigators found that the police officers of the Vukovar-Srijem County Police Department had used their police powers in accordance with the law and professional rules.

The incident occurred early on Sunday morning when a group of Hajduk Split football fans shouted anti-Serb slogans, including “Kill the Serbs”, while marching through Borovo after laying a wreath at the monument to 12 police officers killed in an ambush by Serb paramilitaries at the start of the 1991-1995 Homeland War 30 years ago. Footage of the incident was posted on the town’s Facebook account. The incident was condemned by the government, the president of the republic and many political parties.