War on gangsters may have been Djindjic's undoing

Serbia in shock after snipers kill the Prime Minister who was ushering his country away from bloodstained Milosevic era

The television crews were gathered across the street awaiting a press conference at the Serb education ministry shortly before 1pm yesterday, when the Prime Minister's entourage swept past.

The three-car convoy sped into the parking area of the main government buildings, in full view of the empty Institute for Statistics which is being rebuilt. Seconds later two shots rang out. In the institute or on its rooftop, Zoran Djindjic's assassin, or assassins, had lain in wait.

As Mr Djindjic was walking into the building, slowed by a recent hamstring injury, one bullet hit him in the abdomen, another in the back. Mr Djindjic's bodyguards bundled the wounded Prime Minister into a car and sped him to the nearby Belgrade Emergency Centre. He was pronounced dead at 1.30pm. Grief-stricken relatives, including Mr Djindjic's wife, Ruzica, left the clinic at 2pm.

Three people were arrested after two sniper rifles were found on top of statistics institute buillding.

The attack was the second attempt on the Prime Minister's life. A speeding truck tried to push his car from the road near Belgrade in February. The capital was at a standstill yesterday afternoon. Streets around the government building were closed to traffic and much of the city centre was cordoned off. Police with machine-guns searched vehicles. Stunned Serbs sat glued to their television screens, watching the the biggest political drama since Slobodan Milosevic fell from power in October 2000 and was flown to The Hague to face war crimes charges.

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister, Nebojsa Covic, blamed organised crime and the remnants of Mr Milosevic's ousted regime. "This criminal act is a clear attempt of those who have been trying to stop the development of Serbia and its democratisation, to change the course of history, to isolate and turn Serbia into the kingdom of organised crime again," he said.

Mr Djindjic had repeatedly said fighting organised crime was the prime task of his government, and his assassination revived the climate of fear that characterised the Milosevic era, when politics and state-sponsored organised crime appeared to be hand in glove.

Assassinations of criminals turned businessmen, or of Mr Milosevic's political opponents, marked the decade of his rule. Zeljko Raznatovic, the notorious warlord known as Arkan, was shot dead in a hotel in January 2000. Pavle Bulatovic, the Yugoslav Defence Minister, was killed in a restaurant in February 2000. There was an assassination attempt against Vuk Draskovic, the opposition leader, in October 1999. And the journalist Slavko Curuvija was killed in April 1999.

Mr Djindjic, will be remembered for masterminding Mr Milosevic's fall from power in 2000. He led the campaign of Vojislav Kostunica, as a compromise candidate who could unite the factions opposed to Mr Milosevic. Mr Kostunica, who successfully challenged Mr Milosevic and became President, ceded power last month, when the country was renamed and reorganised into the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Outside Serbia, Mr Djindjic will be remembered for handing Mr Milosevic to the international war crimes tribunal, to the fury of many hardline nationalists. Many Serbs objected to Mr Djindjic's German education and his Americanised English and blamed him for not being "not Serb enough".

But last night the country was back facing a turbulent and uncertain future, torn between the nationalist heritage of Mr Milosevic and hopes for better days. Mr Djindjic, one of its best hopes, lay dead.