Bulgarian NSO Guards Allowed to Shoot at 'Threatening' Cars

The government-issued BMW X5 from the procession of PM Borisov sustained damage after hitting another car. Photo by BGNES

Employees of Bulgaria's National Security Services, (NSO) will have the right to open fire at cars if they deem their drivers to be a threat to the Statesmen they guard.

They will be also allowed to shoot at attacking dangerous animals.

The information is reported Thursday by the Bulgarian dailies "Sega" (Now) and "Trud" (Labor), citing the Order for Activities Connected to the Use of Weapons and Ammunitions by NSO, passed by the cabinet Wednesday.

The shooting against automobiles only aims at "damaging and stopping the threatening vehicle."

NSO say a threat is a car driving towards the guarded individual when the latter is on a street or a square or when a car tries to hit an NSO procession.

"We are only going to aim at tires, not at drivers. We are no killers," NSO say.

The new order allows the guards to carry up to 2 handguns.

The move comes on the heels of an increased number of incidents, involving NSO processions and automobiles. The NSO Head, Dimitar Dimitrov, admits traffic accidents with NSO cars are up 30% in one year, but says that out of 31 such incidents, only 7 have been caused by NSO drivers.

Meanwhile, the largest private TV channel bTV aired a report that one year after the car, in which Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, was riding, caused a crash, the driver of the other vehicle is going to be legally charged, despite the fact he was obeying traffic laws and passing at a green light. The accident happened in April 20101, at the busy intersection of the "Bulgaria" boulevard and "Todor Kabsleshkov" street in Sofia. A toddler was injured during the crash.

The investigators say the civil driver had 3 seconds to avoid the accident, but failed to react.

The NSO car ran a red-light and did not have any special markings such as a siren or flashing lights.

The latest incident with NSO automobiles occurred on February 15, when the procession of Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, got involved in a traffic accident on its way from Sofia to the western town of Godech.

The government-issued BMW X5 hit another car – a Volkswagen Passat with three men inside. There were no injuries, but both vehicles were damaged.

Another car from the official possession was also damaged after a fender-bender with the Volkswagen which spun around from the impact.

The Volkwagen driver insists the BMW traveled at high speed in his lane and he couldn't do anything to prevent the crash.

Dimitrov told the media the accident was caused by the Volkswagen, which was traveling at high speed on a slippery road, and the driver lost control.

Both drivers have been tested for alcohol and the blood probe came out negative.

This was the second accident in less than a month involving Borisov's procession – at the end of January a government vehicle hit a car when traveling to the northern city of Pleven. The crash did not cause injuries or substantial damage. The probe revealed it the accident was caused by an illegal passing of the NSO cars.

In September, the procession of President, Georgi Parvanov, was involved in an accident near the village of Malinovo, in the area of the northern city of Lovech. At the time, the Presidential Office commented there had been, indeed an accident near the procession, but NSO vehicles were not involved.

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