WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Hina) - The passport found on the attacker who slit the throat of the driver on a Greyhound bus near Manchester, Tennessee, belonged to a 29-year-old Croatian national, Damir Igric. The information about the travel
document was made public by the police investigating department in Tennessee on Wednesday evening. The incident happened just after 4.am. Wednesday on Interstate 24 near Manchester, while the bus was en route from Chicago to Orlando, Fla. The passenger, apparently a mentally deranged person, suddenly attacked the driver, slashed his throat, grabbed the wheel, so that the bus careened off the highway. In the crash six passengers, including the attacker, were killed at the site. Other passengers and the driver were taken to hospital where they were treated for fractures, contusions and other injuries. All of them were out of critical condition. According to Croatian and US
WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Hina) - The passport found on the attacker who
slit the throat of the driver on a Greyhound bus near Manchester,
Tennessee, belonged to a 29-year-old Croatian national, Damir
Igric.
The information about the travel document was made public by the
police investigating department in Tennessee on Wednesday
evening.
The incident happened just after 4.am. Wednesday on Interstate 24
near Manchester, while the bus was en route from Chicago to Orlando,
Fla. The passenger, apparently a mentally deranged person,
suddenly attacked the driver, slashed his throat, grabbed the
wheel, so that the bus careened off the highway. In the crash six
passengers, including the attacker, were killed at the site. Other
passengers and the driver were taken to hospital where they were
treated for fractures, contusions and other injuries. All of them
were out of critical condition.
According to Croatian and US offices in charge of co-operation with
Interpol, the positive identification of the attacker is still
under way, and only the comparison of the fingerprints of the killed
attacker and those of Damir Igric in the police files could confirm
whether Igric was really the attacker.
According to unofficial sources, there is little doubt about the
identity of that attacker.
Damir Igric was born in 1972, and his permanent place of residence
is the eastern Croatian town of Slavonski Brod. He arrived in the
United States two years ago with a valid visa in his passport. The
visa, issued in the U.S Embassy in Zagreb, expired in the meantime.
According to Croatian police, Igric has a criminal record as a drug
addict and for the sale of narcotics and illegal possession of
arms.
The surviving passengers and driver reported that the attacker had
several times stood up from his seat and asked what time it was and
where they were. Eventually, about 100 kilometres south of
Nashville he just went up to the bus driver and assaulted him with no
reason.
A doctor in the Manchester hospital said the driver had two cuts on
his neck, caused by the slashing with a razor or a box cutter. After
the surgery he was in stable condition.
The FBI and the Greyhound management said this tragic accident was
the result of an isolated act by a single deranged individual.
Croatian Embassy in Washington has been cooperating with the FBI
and local investigators since the very start of the probe.
Ambassador Ivan Grdesic said all data on Damir Igric, suspect of
having committed the assault, were handed over to the
investigators.
After the attack, Greyhound shot down service as a precaution. It
resume service about seven hours after the crash, but the security
was bolstered. Luggage was searched and passengers checked with
hand-held metal detectors.
(hina) ms