Grenade Launcher Attack in Sofia Targeted Ex-Security Agent - IntMin

Bulgarian Interior Ministry Rumyana Bachvarova has confirmed that a grenade launcher attack in a neighborhood next to downtown Sofia targeted Alexei Petrov, a former agent suspected of having ties to the criminal underworld.

Bachvarova has told lawmakers the attacker had hit a car owned by Petrov, one of whose bodyguards called 112 at 8:54. "The attack is likely to have taken place 15 minutes earlier."

The weapon used was indeed a grenade launcher, she said.

Reportedly, after the shot was produced, the attackers drove away in a red Opel.

However, Bachvarova has refuted earlier reports that the incident took place immediately next to his home.

Prosecutors have launched pretrial proceedings over attempted murder.

Private national NOVA TV station reportedly contacted Petrov and quotes him as saying he believed it was a "mistake" and no body had wanted to kill him.

This is the second attempt on Petrov's life after the one in 2002, at another site in the same central neighborhood. He was then heavily wounded.

In Parliament, where Bachvarova was informing of the events after being invited by MPs, news of the incident was received with outrage.

Valeri Simeonov, co-leader of the Patriotic Front, a nationalist coalition which backs the government, has warned such incident in broad daylight put Bulgaria "on equal footing with African and Latin American countries" in terms of criminal actvity.

Mihail Mikov, who heads Bulgaria's biggest opposition party BSP, has noted Bulgaria might be returning "to the years of the mutri", referring to the 1990s and early 2000s which were a period of increased criminal activity and infighting among the so-called "mutri", a name for members and heads of...