Hungary Roma mourn 'gang victim'

By Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Budapest

**The sixth victim of what police believe is an armed gang targeting members of Hungary’s large Roma (Gypsy) community is being buried in the country’s east.**Maria Balogh, 45, was shot dead at her home in the village of Kisleta early on Monday morning.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Ketrin, was also shot several times and remains in intensive care at Nyiregyhaza hospital.

Police are treating the attack as the work of a group believed responsible for several murders in the past year.

In April, a Roma man was shot dead in front of his home in north-eastern Hungary, two months after a Roma father and his five-year-old son were killed in front of their home south of Budapest, which was then set on fire.

Those deaths followed the murder of a Roma couple in north-eastern Hungary last November.

In each case, the victims have come from outlying houses in Roma settlements, although Monday’s shooting was the first time the killers had actually entered a house.

Other attacks where the apparent targets escaped injury have also been documented.

Police have set up a 100-member team and offered a large reward to catch the perpetrators, but so far to no avail.

Up to 7% of the Hungarian population are Roma, with the majority living increasingly segregated lives in the countryside.

Kisleta is a small community some 200 miles (320km) east of the capital Budapest.