Serbian president says explosives found near gas pipeline to Hungary

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said army and police found two backpacks containing explosives on Sunday near a gas pipeline to Hungary, prompting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to convene an emergency defence council meeting.

The backpacks, containing “two large packages of explosives with detonators”, were found in Kanjiza in northern Serbia, “a few hundred metres from the gas pipeline”, Vučić said.

The Balkan Stream pipeline is an extension of the TurkStream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary.

Vučić said he had informed Hungary’s Orbán “of the initial results of the investigation by our military and police authorities into the threat to the critical gas infrastructure”.

Orbán called the pipeline a piece of “critical gas infrastructure” and said he would gather Hungary’s national defence council for a meeting on Sunday afternoon.

No details were given on possible motives, but Vučić said there were “certain…