Bulgarian Border Police Officer Shot Dead Near Border With Turkey

Bulgaria has reinforced its 259-kilometer southeastern frontier with non-EU member Turkey with a barbed-wire fence, but the barrier has been damaged amid a surge of people trying to cross.

A Bulgarian policeman has been shot and killed while on patrol on the country's border with Turkey, the Interior Ministry said on November 8, amid an influx of people trying to cross into the European Union country. The incident occurred early on November 7, when an unidentified person fired on the border police officer and a serviceman who were patrolling a stretch of the border near the village of Golyam Dervent, Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said. Bulgaria has reinforced its 259-kilometer southeastern frontier with non-EU member Turkey with a barbed-wire fence, but the barrier has been damaged amid a surge of people trying to cross. Two police officers were killed in August when a vehicle carrying migrants rammed into their police car near the Black Sea city of Burgas while they were trying to stop it. To read the original RFE/RL Bulgarian Service's story, click here.