Syrian Migrant Killed in Downtown Sofia
A man reported dead earlier on Sunday in the Bulgarian capital Sofia's downtown area was a migrant from Syria, police have confirmed.
The victim was chased after by two men who attacked them with a knife and stabbed him several times. He died from his wounds before emergency medical teams had arrived.
Some reports suggest that two men, supposedly brothers, who were injured at the same venue were the people who attacked 21-year-old Shirvan Abdul Selyam Rashid (name may be misspelled), but this is yet to be confirmed.
The Bulgarian National Radio quotes witnesses living in the area as saying that all three people who were involved in the incident dealt were people smugglers. Police did not immediately comment.
Interior Ministry sources are quoted as saying they have all been Bulgarian document holders for some years.
The incident took place at the crossroads between Tsar Simeon and Knyaz Boris I streets - an area that has had large populations of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa (both earlier waves of asylum seekers and newcomers) for the last decades.
Scuffles between migrants are quite common on a daily basis in the neighborhood, some residents suggest.