USKOK has joined the case of four individuals arrested in the Benkovac area on suspicion of involvement in fires, and a witness told 24sata about the dramatic moments when she and her family encountered potential arsonists.
USKOK has joined the case of four individuals arrested on Saturday evening in the area around Benkovac, who are suspected of involvement in starting fires in the Zadar region. As confirmed to Index, USKOK is investigating the possibility that this case contains elements of a terrorist criminal offense.
The four were taken into custody after citizens reported suspicious behavior near Raštević, not far from Benkovac. According to information known so far, witnesses spotted them lighting a fire, after which they drove away in a car. Police located and arrested them shortly thereafter.
A married couple spotted four people near Raštević. They were seen next to a fire, and the husband then got out of the vehicle and extinguished it using a water bottle. The four then left the scene in a dark BMW, but the woman managed to memorize the license plate and called the police.
"Last night after 8 PM, following a report from citizens about suspicious behavior by four individuals in the wider Benkovac area, police officers, through extensive operational work on the ground, located and stopped the suspicious vehicle in a short time and arrested four individuals who were brought to official premises, and a criminal investigation is underway," the Zadar police announced.
Unofficial information from RTL suggests that among those arrested are three Croatian citizens of Serbian nationality and one foreign female citizen. RTL also reported that the foreign national is from Poland. It is not yet known how the four arrestees are connected to each other, but unofficially it is known that they were in the same car.
The woman who reported the four told 24sata what happened.
"We were driving towards Škabrnja. It was dark and we saw a small flame. I reflexively stopped, and my husband put it out with a bottle of water," she said.
"We saw a car next to us. I saw four people, two were outside. One was yelling at my husband: 'Why do you care what I'm doing?' At that moment, I was looking for my phone to record. I called 112, read them the license plate, and they fled at that moment. The police reacted quickly. It was in a second. We were with two kids, there was fear and panic," she added.
"I feel sorry that the family of that fool will suffer. If it happened again, I would do it again. We're not afraid; I was scared when I saw my husband heading towards them after he put out the fire. At that moment, what mattered was that the fire was extinguished," she concluded.
The arrest came at a time when firefighters in the wider Benkovac area and surroundings were responding to multiple open-space fires on Saturday. Fires were recorded in Biljane, Lišane Tinjske, Zapužane, Zagrad, and Dobropoljci, as well as in the Torovi area near Biograd and in Privlaka. All fires are under control.
The police have not yet disclosed their identities, ages, or details about which specific fires they are being linked to. It has also not been announced whether any items were found on them that could directly connect them to the arson.
A criminal investigation is underway into the four arrestees, which should shed light on all the circumstances of their movements, as well as any possible connection to the fires in the Zadar area. Only after the criminal investigation is completed will it be known what exactly the four are suspected of, which fires they may be linked to, and whether there is a basis for further action on suspicion of terrorism.
