POLICE have arrested and interrogated a 61-year-old man from Perusic, a community in Lika-Senj County, on the suspicion that this past Sunday he threatened to kill a 45-year-old local woman and shot at her children from a handgun.

Police, however, did not confirm claims by the woman and media that the man in question is Ivan Turic, the HDZ mayor of Perusic, who has denied the accusations.

Lika-Senj County police on Tuesday only briefly reported that they arrested and questioned a 61-year-old man from Perusic on the suspicion that he threatened a 45-year-old local woman and shot from a handgun at her children.

The woman claims he threatened her and shot at her children

The woman, Natasa Amic, said Turic threatened her and shot at her children because her goats had entered his field.

Turic has confirmed to Hina that he was arrested, questioned and told to stay a minimum 100 metres away from Amic.

He denied that the incident had taken place, accusing Amic of having made it up.

Turic said that Amic's children were 500 metres away from him when he went to inspect the field pea crops owned by his daughter, who runs a family farm, because his neighbours had told him that Amic's goats were causing damage to the crops, which are enclosed.

Turic said that he did not own a handgun and did not have it on Sunday, that he did not shoot at anyone and that he did not have a conflict with anyone, including Amic's children, as well as that his daughter would probably sue the Amics for the damage caused by their goats to her crops.

Even though he is the mayor of Perusic, Turic says that local authorities are incapable of making order in the community, that its residents were not equal before the law, and that other locals "are afraid of the Roma, cannot live freely and live in inequality."