Hungarian police have released dashboard camera footage of two Iraqi people smugglers shooting at them during a high-speed chase on a motorway near Budapest.
During the police chase, it can be clearly seen as one of the Iraqi nationals leans out of the fleeing minivan and aims his weapon at the police car that is in hot pursuit.
As Remix News reported earlier, a gunfight broke out on Monday morning between two people smugglers and the police. The police tried to stop the van which refused to stop. The Iraqi smugglers fired several shots at them on the outskirts of Budapest, and the police returned fire. The men, aged 21 and 28, attempted to flee on foot, but were eventually apprehended by the Counter-Terrorism Center’s operations unit. Another 21 illegal immigrants were arrested in the van, with most of them claiming to be from Syria.
One of the arrested migrants said during interrogation that the road organizer had left the smugglers a pistol next to the gearbox with which they could “shoot the police” if necessary.
Hungarian police also released another video which featured the testimony of the police officers who pursued the people smugglers. One of them is a young female police officer.
“When the man shot out the window, I was very surprised, because I didn’t expect that to happen. I was scared because I was afraid that I, my colleagues and the civilians, would get hurt, and I realized that I was young, really between life and death,” she said.
People smugglers face stiff prison sentences in Hungary, which means many are desperate to avoid apprehension. Hungary reports that over 260,000 migrants have been stopped from entering the country this year, representing a dramatic jump over previous years.
