[2] At approximately 5:45 p.m., ethnic Albanian militants carried out an ambush on the convoy positioned between the villages Selce and Vejce.

The killed officers Marjan Božinovski, Kire Kostadinovski, Boško Najdovski and Ilče Stojanovski were members of the special police unit from Bitola.

The killed soldiers Robert Petkovski, Boban Trajkovski, Igor Kosteski and Mile Janevski were sergeants.

Subsequently, news of the deaths fueled local unrest, sparking riots against ethnic Albanians in several towns and cities across Macedonia.

[10][11] A war crime inquiry regarding the ambush was launched by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in November 2001.

[17] Anthropologist Vasiliki Neofotistos wrote of "the gruesome event that came to be known as the Vejce massacre" and its aftermath:[18] "On 28 April NLA insurgents killed eight Macedonian male commandos in the Macedonian Army Special Forces, also known as "Wolves" (Volci), in an ambush near the village of Vejce, nine miles north of Tetovo.