Bruce Lee statue for Bosnian city

Bruce Lee was the first star of kung-fu

Kung-fu legend Bruce Lee is to be honoured with a statue in the war-torn Bosnian city of Mostar.

A statue of the action hero is intended to remind people of Lee's "loyalty, friendship, skill and justice".

The city remains ethnically split with Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs divided since the 1992-95 war.

Writer Veselin Gatalo said: "Lee is a true international hero and is a hero to all ethnicities in Bosnia and that's why we picked him."

Opening ceremony

Gatalo, who came up with the idea, said they planned to erect the statue in Spanish Square, in the centre of the city.

He is an ethnic Croat and said he hopes a statue to Lee will help erase the city's image as a place of ethnic rivalries.

"We want that people, when you say Mostar, respond: 'that's the city that has a monument to Bruce Lee'," Gatalo added.

He hopes to install the statue by November this year and invite Lee's wife, Linda Lee to the opening ceremony.

The four martial arts films Lee made - Fists of Fury (1972), Enter the Dragon, The Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon (all 1973) - ensured his place in film history.

But he died at the age of 32 from swelling on the brain, before he could witness his rise to fame in the US.