Bizarre accidents and tourist murders plague Croatia - one was killed because of hairstyle comment

A "failed" season - that's how many media outlets have been describing this summer in Croatia. Expensive deck chairs, breakfasts and drinks, as well as empty hotels are the focus of the local websites. However, this summer in Croatia was also marked by crimes. The news of murders and bizarre accidents came one after the other, and this country has proved as a particularly fatal destination for foreign tourists.

At the end of July, three tourists were stabbed on the Croatian coast in just one week. A young Austrian woman was killed by a speedboat on the island of Krk, while the last in a series of incidents was the poisoning of Italian tourists on a boat.

Croatian website Index.hr previously wrote that the season of attacks began back in February when three Red Star Belgrade water polo players were attacked in Split. Two were able to escape while one saved himself by jumping in the sea.

A few months went by and then another attack happened. The target were once again Serbs - seasonal workers in Supetar, on the island of Brac.

Photo: Wikimedia/Sztudva Gyöngyi, Profimedia/AFP

This attack was followed by several others. Numerous incredible accidents, disappearances and discoveries of foreign nationals can be added to this.

Late last month in Croatia, a Frenchman, a German and an Australian got stabbed.

The knife attack on a 31-year-old Frenchman on Split's Bacvice Beach occurred in the early hours of the morning. While he was swimming with a friend, the Frenchman noticed an unknown man digging through his belongings on the beach. He stepped out of the sea to prevent his things from being stolen, when the thief stabbed a knife into his chest. The Frenchman ended up in the hospital.

German tourist Patrick Bessinger, 23, was killed with a knife in the town of Pula. He was spending the evening with a compatriot at a restaurant, where he saw an unknown man and praised his hairstyle. However, the man took this compliment as an insult and verbally attacked the group of German guests. When they left the establishment, they realized that a stranger was following them. He pulled out a knife and stabbed Patrick, who died on July 17.

Two days later, a man stabbed four people in a nightclub in Split. A 23-year-old Australian citizen was among those injured.

Also in Split, just a few days ago, another brutal attack took place. Two dark-skinned boys were assaulted in that city. According to witnesses, they were first chased by a group of angry young men, who called them "monkeys" and pelted bottles at them, to then catch up with the victims and severely beat them.

Austrian national Verena Heinz, 28, was killed on a popular beach in Malinska, Krk, at the end of July, when a speedboat hit her. On the fatal afternoon, she was diving with her father. The speedboat ran into her on the beach in front of the Malin Hotel. The boat was operated by a Croatian citizen who was not under the influence of alcohol.

Photo: Facebook/Verena Heinz

A German woman, 55, died in the hospital in the town of Rijeka from injuries sustained after jumping overboard to rescue her husband, a 71-year-old fellow German who had fallen into the sea while under the influence of alcohol.

The last two accidents in Croatia concern the disappearance of a US citizen, and Italian tourists' fatal cruise.

Jacob Jacob Andrew Ling, 18, was found safe and sound after a ten-day search.

He left his home in Philadelphia on June 24, arriving in Vienna the next day. He spent a few days in Austria, then traveled to Switzerland, France and Italy. During this time he was in touch with his friends and family.

Ling left Italy on July 19 and traveled to Zagreb, Croatia, on a bus. His family sent him money to an account that it turned out he was not using, and as of July 25, his phone was inactive. He made contact on August 8, but it's still not known where he was while he was considered a missing person.

An Italian citizen died on a boat, and his body was found when the boat docked in the port of Hvar. Five people, aged 64, 56, 44 and children aged 11 and 5, were all hospitalized due to poor health.

After the police gathered evidence and searched the Atlantia, two Croatians in their twenties were arrested. They reportedly, contrary to regulations, on August 8 installed an air-cooled gas engine in the engine compartment, from where poison gases spread into the passengers' cabins, resulting in their poisoning.

VIDEO: Drunken Englishmen attacked Croatian security and got severely beaten

(Telegraf.rs)