Baby injured by falling icicle in Prague

A baby boy was seriously injured when he was hit by a falling icicle in the Prague district of Nusle on Tuesday. The infant, who has a bad head injury, is currently in intensive care at a hospital in the city. The ice hit the baby in front of a building owned by the city, though it is not clear if it fell from there or a neighbouring, privately-owned building. A worker who examined roofs on the street prior to the incident said they had not looked dangerous. Police are investigating the matter. Meanwhile, a nine-year-old boy is also in hospital after being hit by ice which fell from the roof of his school in Mladá Vožice, central Bohemia.

A similar case to the one in Prague occurred in the Moravian town of Hranice in 2006, when a piece of ice fell from a roof into a baby’s pram. Police charged the owner of the building with responsibility for the incident, but she was later found not guilty by a court. Several people have been injured and a number of cars damaged by falling ice and blocks of snow in the Czech Republic in the last couple of days, following a thaw.