A local correspondent in southern Serbia was soaked by communal services workers who were washing a street in the town of Vranje just before a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic.

The regional JUGpress news agency said that its correspondent Zorica Stojanovic was walking towards new buildings with housing for security services personnel which Mihajlovic, the Minister for Construction, was scheduled to visit when communal workers using a high-pressure hose drenched her in water even though she was on the other side of the street trying to avoid them. The agency said that none of the local officials did anything to help her or admonish the workers.  

“She did not see the Minister because she was soaked by a worker hosing mud from the street in front of the new buildings at a temperature of –3,” the agency press release said. Stojanovic had to go home to change out of her wet clothes.  

Minister Mihajlovic issued a written apology to JUGpress and Stojanovic.