Huge police operation at the border + video

Serbian Interior Ministry officials are sweeping the forest around Subotica. A large amount of weapons and ammunition have been collected and hundreds of migrants have been rounded up by the officers.

Serbian police and special forces launched a large-scale operation in the forest around Subotica on Tuesday morning. Several police units were deployed to sweep the area after the situation near the Serbia-Hungary border became untenable again in recent weeks. 

Shootings have become a regular occurrence in Hajdukovo (Hajdujaras), Serbia, a predominantly Hungarian village just a few kilometers from the border fence. Illegal immigrants and people smugglers even entered the residential area and started shooting. 

An elderly woman at the scene told Magyar Nemzet that migrants had fired shots just a few streets away from her house.

Residents were so frightened that they lay down on the floor and stayed there until the shooting stopped. They were afraid that a stray bullet would hit them,

added the woman from Hajdukovo.

 The motorway at Hajdukovo (Photo: Magyar Nemzet)

The situation is most critical on the outskirts of the village, near the motorway, locals told Magyar Nemzet. They stressed that the largest-scale shootings can be heard from there. The migrants hide in the peach orchards, get into the waiting taxis and head for the border. A woman interviewed by Magyar Nemzet added: 

Her husband used to go to their orchard regularly, but lately he is afraid to go there because the place is often swarmed by illegal immigrants.

Street in the outskirts of Hajdukovo. The Wagner row leads to the bush (Photo: Magyar Nemzet)

The situation has escalated in recent days to the point that locals met with the mayor of Subotica and police officials at a public forum. The authorities told the people to remain calm and patient. But the meeting was anything but calm. At one point in the forum, an elderly woman produced bullet casings and showed them to the mayor. Said she had collected them after the shootings.

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In the early hours of Tuesday morning, hundreds of uniformed police arrived in the woods outside Subotica and searched the area meter by meter, according to local press reports.

According to the Subotica-based news portal Subotica.com, the operation began at 4 am. The police and special forces units involved rounded up more than 200 migrants and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition. 

These included automatic rifles, pistols and walkie-talkies. The operation covered an area of 6800 hectares, the Serbian daily Novosti reports

The police transported the illegal immigrants to detention centers. Some 800 members of the Serbian Interior Ministry took part in the operation. Helicopters also flew over the area, reports the local portal Subotica.info.

Prisoner transport vans with their sirens on could be seen several times during the day also in the north of Subotica, Magyar Nemzet reports. 

Cover photo: police action in the forest at Subotica (Photo: District Chief Bojan Soralov's official Facebook page)