A shootout between police and heavily armed persons in northern Kosovo is ongoing after the indecent on Saturday night in which one Kosovo police officer was killed and another one injured, KoSSev reports.

„They are shooting at us, and we are shooting too,“ Veton Eljsani, deputy commander of the Kosovo Police for the North region, told KoSSev.

„We see armed, uniformed people, heavy weapons, they are shooting at us, we are shooting,“ he said, but would not confirm what uniforms these persons wear and who they are, but noted that they use armored vehicles.

Military analyst Vlado Radulovic stressed that the most important thing is that the situation in the north of Kosovo „does not take on wider proportions and escalate further“.

In a statement to the Beta agency, he assessed that, due to long-lasting tensions, „it was only a matter of time“ when „a situation like this morning’s will occur“.

„It seems that we are in a critical phase when there could potentially be a further spiral of spreading violence, so that this is not just an isolated incident… and I hope that it will not come to that,“ said Radulovic.

In the night between Saturday and Sunday, a rapid intervention unit of the border police noticed that at the entrance to the village of Banjska two heavy trucks without license plates blocking the entrance to a bridge. Three police units were deployed to the area.

„As soon as they arrived at the location of the blockade, they encountered resistance, where shots were fired from a different arsenal of firearms, including hand grenades and pistols from some positions, during which two policemen were shot,“ the statement said.

Police said the officers reacted in self-defense and managed to push back the initial attack in order to create conditions to provide assistance and retrieval of the injured officers.

„The injured police officers were pulled out of the location and transported to the Regional Hospital in South Mitrovica, where the doctor declared the death of one, while the other was injured,“ the statement said.