New attack on Roma in Hungary

Budapest — Shots were fired at a house occupied by Hungarian Roma in a new attack on the minority that has suffered a recent wave of murders, a local official said Wednesday.

Gyula Horvath, head of a Roma authority in the village of Lengyeltoti, 180 kilometres (110 miles) southwest of Budapest, said the attack happened Monday night in the neighbouring village of Taska.

Horvath, quoting witnesses, said two bullets were fired from a car through a window and two hit a wall, but no one was hurt. Police said they were investigating, but it was not clear if the shooting was linked to earlier attacks.

Hungary’s police chief said Monday that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been asked to assist in probing 18 attacks, including several murders.

FBI agents would analyse evidence found by Hungarian police and to help profiling the killers, police chief Jozsef Bencze said, according to Hungarian newswire MTI.

Bencze said a 100-member police squad working on the cases had accumulated more than 10,000 clues at the scenes of the 18 attacks that were lumped together.

Last year, 16 anti-Roma attacks were reported in Hungary, including assaults with guns, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails.

In February, a Roma father and his son were shot in front of their house after it was set on fire, while in April, a Roma man was shot dead in front of his house.

Police offered a 50-million-forint (175,000-euro, 235,000 dollar) reward for the murderers which Bencze earlier said had been members of the same four or five-member gang.

AFP/Expatica