The abbot of Bulgaria's Glozhene Monastery, Jeromonk Pankratiy, who set the cloister on fire twice for a night after shooting at several visitors, said the temples across the country should be guarded by officers from a police department, founded by the church.

Jeromonk Pankratiy made the statement in a phone interview for Darik Radio as he is now under home arrest.

"The church is separated from the state, it is poor and driven into the corner. We, the servant of God, are forced to be some kind of prostitutes in order to maintain the monasteries and churches across the country," he explained.

"The monks are ordinary people and not Martians, they also could be hurt and could feel anger," Pankratiy added after being asked if a priest should have and use a weapon.

"I shot against hypocrisy of a dead system - that of the State Secret Services." That way the abbot explained the attack against the monastery's visitor Bisser Dokov.

The atrocities began after a quarrel between Pankratiy and a group of laymen, which drove the priest mad enough to start shooting at them with a gas pistol shortly after midnight about ten days ago.

Few minutes later, the priest went to the monastery's vestry, set it on fire and run away by his own jeep, which was also burnt in the area of Predela.

Meanwhile, firefighters from the services in Teteven and Yablanitsa managed to extinguish the flames but abbot Pankratyi returned at 6 a.m. and set fire to the vestry once again.

Then he tried to hide but police officers found him after a long search.