Belgrade - High ranking Serbian officials have received death threats over the arrest of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, prompting the security services to raise the level of alert to its highest, Belgrade daily Blic reported Friday.

Serbia's pro-European President Boris Tadic, his partner in government and the leader of Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists, Ivica Dacic, war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic and the head of the national council for cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Rasim Ljajic, all received death threats after Karadzic's arrest.

The tribunal has accused the former Bosnian Serb leader of genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 Bosnia war. He was captured on Monday night in Belgrade after 12 years on the run.

Reports quoting security service sources said that Vukcevic received threats like "You're dead" and "You have a bomb under your car," while Ljajic got the most direct threat - "You'll end up like your Djindjic. First we'll shoot you in the knees."

Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, the leader of the Democratic Party now headed by Tadic, was assassinated by Milosevic's special police forces in 2003, two years after he extradited Milosevic, also charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, to The Hague. (dpa)