Dr Vesna Bosanac, the pre- and post-war director of the Vukovar Hospital, died early on Monday morning after a long illness. She was 73.

Dr Bosanac is one of the symbols of Vukovar’s defence in the 1991-95 war in Croatia.

She headed the city hospital at the time of the strongest attacks on Vukovar by the JNA and Serb paramilitaries in 1991. After the city’s fall in November 1991, she was taken prisoner and held captive in Serbia and was released in a prisoners’ exchange in December 1991.