Serbian police have said that members of "sports fans' sub-groups and even members of certain organisations" were responsible for assaulting Croatian fans in Novi Sad on Tuesday night after a Croatia-France handball game, adding that 12 have been arrested and that they had firearms and cold steel, while the other participants in the assault are being identified, the media in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina said on Thursday.
There have been no reports of incidents after last night's Croatia-Hungary game in Novi Sad as part of the European handball championships, the press said. The Croatian team, despite tension in the city, was cheered by about 1,000 Croatian handball fans.
Police released a list of those arrested showing that they are young people, mainly from Novi Sad, while three are from Belgrade.
Dnevnik daily said one Croatian fan was stabbed in a clash with a Serbian fan in Ruma and that two people sustained light head injuries, adding that this was confirmed by a spokesperson of the general hospital in Sremska Mitrovica.
The daily quoted the owner of a gas station as saying that Croatian fans were responsible for causing a mass fight in Ruma because they were unruly, after which Serbian fans appeared on the scene.
The assaults on the Croatian fans have been condemned by Serbia's police director, state and Novi Sad city officials, the refugee organisation Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance, and the Civic Vojvodina coalition of non-governmental organisations.
The Humanitarian Centre has said the assault was "not only criminal and non-civilisational but also unpatriotic and anti-Serbian," an act that "makes life harder for Serbs in Croatia as well as for refugees in Serbia in their fight to protect and exercise their rights in Croatia."
Civic Vojvodina has protested in a statement because the police did not provide security to the Croatian handball fans "but left them in the hands of hooligans and criminals," adding that the assaults could have been expected, "which leaves the bitter impression that the police deliberately didn't do their job."
Belgrade's Press daily said 5,000 police would be on duty for the Croatia-Serbia handball semifinal match in Belgrade on Friday and that a team of Croatian operatives who were cooperating with the Serbian police on violence prevention had already arrived in the Serbian capital.
The daily said police would also secure the motorway from the Croatian border to Belgrade.
Other Belgrade media said there were incidents in Novi Sad again last night after the Croatia-Hungary handball game, with four cars with Croatian as well as Serbian licence plates damaged.
