Croatian publisher killed in car bomb

A  Croatian publisher and his colleague were killed in a car bomb Thursday evening in the center of the capital Zagreb, electronic media reported.Ivo Pukanic, director of the newspaper Nacional and Niko Franic, head of marketing in the company were killed when the car they were in was exploded in front of the newspaper building. A powerful bomb was believed to be place underneath the car owned by Pukanic.The explosion site is cordoned off and the police are collecting information and evidence, a spokesman of the Zagreb police told the official Hina news agency.

President Stjepan Mesic issued a statement shortly after the incident, warning “terrorism came to the streets of the Croatian capital.”

“The criminal underworld has presented the law-enforcement institutions and the entire system with an unprecedented challenge. Citizens of the Republic of Croatia are rightly asking themselves — who is next?” Mesic said, stressing “the government and the system must respond to terror and terrorism instantly, vigorously and with all means available.”

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader vowed in a news conference that “I shall not allow Croatia to become Beirut.”

He called on all Croatians to rise up and fight against this type of organized crimes.

The incident came just a few weeks after the interior and justice ministers were sacked following a series of murders and beatings in this small Adriatic country.