Flares lit by SNS supporters set the walls of Nis Fortress on fire during a pre-election rally

The walls of Nis Fortress were engulfed in flames on Sunday evening, during the pre-election rally of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the largest city of the country’s south, after supporters lit fireworks and flares, as Juzne vesti reports, cited by the BBC in Serbian.

According to the reporting, the flames caught the ramparts of the 18th-century Ottoman fortress — one of the best-preserved monuments in the Balkans — and were later extinguished. The local pro-government television station Nis TV interrupted the live broadcast of the rally as soon as the flares were lit, the Beta agency reported.

The incident provoked harsh reactions in Serbia. “Neither the Turks, nor the Austro-Hungarians, nor any other occupier set fire to Nis Fortress. The Progressives managed it. Barbarians,” the opposition MP Jelena Milosevic wrote on social media. Students reacted with irony: “They are not even capable of lighting fireworks, let alone running the state,” as quoted by the N1 portal.

The opposition has filed criminal complaints over the burning of the fortress walls, while the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) demanded the resignation of the mayor of Nis over the incident. MP Djordje Stankovic, who reported the fire, has been summoned to the police for questioning, Nova.rs reports.