Bulgarian police arrested a gunman who endangered the lives of four foreign presidents in Sofia Thursday, during the course of a summit of 10 NATO candidate states, the interior ministry announced Saturday.
"The lives of four presidents were in danger," Interior Ministry Secretary General Boiko Borissov told Bulgarian radio, without naming the heads of state involved.
The presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria met NATO Secretary General George Robertson in Sofia Friday.
"A particularly dangerous criminal armed with a Scorpio machine gun and 40 cartridges was arrested Thursday night near the Hilton hotel where four of the presidents were staying," said Borissov.
"The man put up a fierce struggle when police tried to arrest him, breaking one officer's arm," he said.
Bulgarian chief of police, General Vassil Vassilev said security services had warned of a meeting of anti-globalization protesters in Sofia. With the aid of European security services they discovered an internet site called Phantom, containing information on a meeting in Sofia.
Exceptional security measures were taken to protect the summit in Sofia, during which the 10 former East bloc countries assured NATO of their full support for the battle against terrorism -- SOFIA (AFP)
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