Exclusive story only on air on NOVA. Marieta Nikolaeva met and talked with 29-year-old Dragomir Andonov. The man was injured with a knife in the Albanian quarter of Skopje before the match between “Levski” and the local “Shkupi”. He was wounded in the liver and in the first hours there was danger to his life.
Dragomir has already been discharged from the VMA, where he was transferred from the hospital in Skopje. He is fine and recovering. He told us details about the attack in front of the team. He is categorical that there was no provocation on their part. As he says, “we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The attack took place in one of the neighborhoods while they were waiting at a traffic light. A massive attack on the Bulgarians and my cars followed. Drago initially doesn’t realize he’s been stabbed.
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The young man told NOVA that he is fine. “I’m alive and well. I was discharged last night. And now I’m getting back into my normal routine. I step on my feet. We take what lessons we can and move forward,” he asserted.
With great enthusiasm, Drago and his friends went to Skopje to support their favorite football team. “We went as a joke. Close distance, neighboring country, a lot of adrenaline and it’s an experience to support your favorite club. We are not one of those fans who go to matches to cause trouble – hooligans, vandals who spoil the agenda, cause trouble. We distinguish ourselves from them”, he points out.
Police cars were waiting for them after the border, which escorted all the fans from Bulgaria to the stadium. Some lagged behind, others moved faster. It turned out that they had dropped the others and stopped on the road. A police patrol directed them to move on.
“We had the GPS running. He chooses the shortest route and we start entering a neighborhood. We don’t know what it is, there is no sign. We see that in the neighborhood there are people on the streets, Muslims. We decide to continue, we don’t know where we are, there was no police car. We move slowly, we are all dressed in blue”, says Dragomir.
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He categorically denies that he or his friends in any way provoked the violence against them. They get stuck at a traffic light. “We have done absolutely no provocations. Traffic is getting heavier. There is a traffic light. We reach an intersection and get caught in a traffic jam – the car now starts, then stops. We stand still and wait. I am sitting behind the passenger seat and with my peripheral vision I notice a boy about 25-30 years old walking by the car. I see him level up with the window and start pulling me. My scarf was inside and he reached for it and started pulling. When I tried to pull away, the response was a punch in the eye. I was bruised and swollen. He kept pulling, he didn’t give up. I decided to open the door. The boys started to go down. More people gathered behind the boy pulling the scarf. One of them took out a wooden stick and hit me on the head with it. More people started arriving. I have three stitches,” Dragomir points out.
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According to him, he and his friends tried to get back into the car and close the doors. It was at this moment that he was also stabbed. “I later realized that I had been stabbed then. One of the boys saw the one who was pulling my scarf through the window swinging 3-4 times,” said Drago. And he adds: “My goal was to get away.” The situation unfolded in less than 2 minutes. And people kept coming, throwing tubes, bottles, and the moment I managed to pull away with a pole, they hit the back window and broke it. I also see the other car – something is being thrown at them. It was like in the movies, things developed so quickly. Terrible shock. My head is bleeding, I’m covered in blood, and I don’t realize from the adrenaline that I’ve been stabbed. We stopped to see what the damage was and I feel like my whole t-shirt is wet. When I look – the color has turned from blue to brown. I saw that there was a lot of blood, that I had a stab wound. The one boy with us is a doctor. He gave first aid. They went looking for the police.”
In front of the hospital, Drago loses consciousness. A blood transfusion and major surgery are required. “Thank you so much for what they did. They bandaged me and constantly monitored my condition”, the young man points out.
Dragomir’s entire account of the minutes of the attack in Skopje – watch tomorrow morning on “Hello, Bulgaria”.
2023-08-09 16:05:28
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