A border police officer was shot dead while patrolling the border with Turkey in the region of Golyam Dervent village in the vicinity of the Lesovo-Hamzabeyli border checkpoint.

The incident took place at around 8.35 on Monday night. The patrol included a border police officer and an army officer. After the shooting the army officer was able to retreat from the wooded area where the incident took place. Interior Ministry officials told the BNR that a meeting with the Turkish authorities has taken place on the border line to discuss the incident, as the perpetrator is assumed to have been on Turkish territory.

“We have been seeing quite a lot of migrants in Golyam Dervent in recent months, the flow has increased, that is why the patrol teams in the area have been reinforced,” the village mayor Ivan Fransuzov explained. Interior Minister innthe caretaker cabinet Ivan Demerdzhiev has cancelled the official celebrations of the day of the national police marked on St. Archangel Michael’s day, 8 November.

Valentin Popov, spokesperson for the police trade union federation called for a sufficient number of staff with specific training to start work in the endangered regions along the border, and for an end to the practice of seconding staff from the country’s interior to work at the border.