BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- An incident thought to be an assassination attempt on Serbia's President Boris Tadic was actually a case of "road rage," the BBC reported Thursday.
Tuesday evening a car repeatedly tried to hit the president's motorcade as it drove through Belgrade, the capital. The president was not injured.
Most local media immediately described the incident as an assassination attempt, and the president's office Wednesday called for a quick investigation.
However, Interior Minister Dragan Jocic told a press conference Wednesday that the incident was a simple traffic violation.
"A security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade ... had no idea that he hit the escort of President Boris Tadic," Jocic said.
Officials said the driver, Miroslav Cimpl, had become irritated at the manner in which the president's vehicles were being driven through Belgrade traffic.
In 2003, pro-Western Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in Belgrade.
Tadic, who came into office in July, is widely resented by Serbian nationalists for his pro-Western policies and staunch support for the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
He has called for the extradition of a host of war crimes suspects to face the tribunal, where former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is currently on trial.
