BELGRADE (Reuters) -An attacker who fired a crossbow at a police officer guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade was shot and killed on Saturday in what Interior Minister Ivica Dacic called a terrorist attack against Serbia.

The policeman is in a life-threatening condition and is undergoing surgery, Serbian news agency Tanjug quoted Dacic as saying.

The minister said the police officer who was attacked was hit in the neck with an arrow and fired several shots at the attacker, killing him.

“This is a terrorist attack against Serbia,” Dacic said in the statement carried by Tanjug.

He said that several people believed to have been linked to the incident had been arrested.

“There are some indications that they (those arrested) are already known to security services and we are talking about the Wahhabi organisation, but that is not confirmed,” Dacic said, referring to a strict school of Islam.

The policeman was in a guard house and the attacker had approached him several times asking him where a museum was. He carried a bag from which at one point he took the crossbow and shot the guard, Dacic said.