“My personal opinion is that these are so called contract killings,” Focus quoted Dimitrov as saying.

Two men were shot at around 8.35pm near Nikola Vaptsarov Boulevard, the Interior Ministry announced in a media statement.The two were parking a vehicle in front of a residential building when a third man opened fire. The assailant managed to escape after the shooting, according to the ministry’s official reports. One of the victims had managed to alert police after the attack. Both victims are aged 33. They are both hospitalised and their lives are in danger, the ministry’s media statement said.
According to Dnevnik daily, one of the victims was shot in the back of the neck. He had a criminal record for financial and credit crimes and had been fined as a result. The other victim was less seriously wounded. The newspaper quoted unofficial information that there was a third person in the car, who was the actual target of the assault, but who managed to escape.According to mediapool.bg, the condition of the second victim, who had been shot seven times in the chest, was more serious. The first victim had been shot in the head but his life was not in danger. The two were attacked while parking a car in front of the residential building where one of them lived, mediapool.bg said.The Interior Ministry’s chief secretary Pavlin Dimitrov was quoted as saying that the victims were business partners. One man apparently served as bodyguard to the other. The shooting probably stemmed from a financial dispute, Dimitrov said as quoted by mediapool.bg.Focus news agency said that one of the victims was shot twice. One of the bullets injured his face, neck and left palm. He was conscious but his life was in danger. The second victim was shot seven times on the right side of the chest. Medics still had to extract two of the bullets. His fourth cervical vertebra was shattered, meaning he could be facing paralysis.
Focus quoted Dimitrov as confirming that one of the victims had a criminal record. Police had not received any tip-offs regarding threats to the victims. Dimitrov denied reports that a third person was in the car.Dimitrov said that he could not speculate on reasons for the assault. The contacts and the acquaintances of the victims were to be clarified. The weapon used in the crime had been identified. The victims were also carrying weapons, but this was legal, Dimitrov told journalists.
The situation in Sofia was dire, Dimitrov said when asked to comment on the fact that it was the city’s second serious attack within two days. Two blasts went off almost simultaneously in bars in Sofia on the evening of September 7 2008, injuring six people, including a pregnant woman. According to police, the bars were illegal brothels.“My personal opinion is that these are so called contract killings,” Focus quoted Dimitrov as saying.