Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic on Monday strongly condemned the homophobic violence and attacks that followed Saturday's LGBTIQ Pride Parade, saying that he expected those responsible to be brought to justice and the attacks to be treated as hate crime.

“I expect those responsible to be identified and brought to justice as as soon as possible and the attacks to be treated as hate crime. Zagreb is and must be an open city in which we all will feel safe and comfortable regardless of our sexual orientation, skin colour, religion, nationality or any other characteristic,” Tomasevic, who had taken part in the parade, said in a statement.

He said that the new city government would do all that was necessary to make it so, citing long-term training for health, welfare, judicial and education professionals who deal with victims of violence, providing shelters for victims of violence and taking other measures to improve the atmosphere and ensure the acceptance of LGBTIQ+ persons in society.

Police said on Monday they had filed a criminal complaint against four men and a woman for using violence out of hatred towards the Pride Parade participants. The men are aged 18, 19, 26 and 39, and the woman is 24 years old.