Blast injures eighteen people in the centre of Prague
: An explosion ripped through the heart of Prague's main shopping district on Sunday afternoon, in what police are saying was a failed attempt to kill an Israeli casino owner, whose father was an underworld boss, who was slain in a contract killing two years ago, just outside the Casino Royal in downtown Prague. Eighteen people, most of them foreign tourists, were injured in the attack on Sunday, which Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross has called a "criminal act" aimed at "settling accounts." Brian Kenety has this report from outside the casino.
"The area is very popular with shoppers and tourists. And this is some of the most expensive real estate in the centre of Prague — a lot of well-known, international companies, such as Mango and Benetton, have their premier addresses here; there's a McDonald's just across the street, there's a Fischer travel agency.
"There are hundreds of people milling around, doing window shopping. There is no visible sign that an attack took place here. Whatever broken glass that was in the area has been cleaned."
"Thanks to the fact that his car was armour plated, the owner of the casino, Assaf Abutbul, was not injured in the attack, which came less than two years after his own father, Felix, was gunned down not far from here, as he left the casino. That was in August 2002."
"According to Israeli media reports, Felix Abutbul was an underworld crime boss who operated illegal gambling operations in resort towns throughout Israel. And his nickname was "the Butcher'."
"The casino has about 30 table tops on the promenade here. Absolutely no one is sitting there, but it's still early in the day.
"Back to you, Pavla."
That was Brian Kenety reporting from Prague's Na Prikope Street, where an explosion injured 18 people on Sunday. I am now joined in the studio by Daniela Lazarova who's been following developments - Daniela what's the situation at the present time?
"Well, as we already said, 18 people sustained injuries -including an eight-year-old girl. Luckily none of the injuries were life-threatening - mostly cut wounds caused by flying pieces of shrapnel and broken glass, as well as shock of course. Even people who came away unscathed were clearly in a state of shock as they told their story to journalists afterwards. Sixteen people were released from hospital on the same day after getting treatment - and two remain hospitalized. One of them a Czech woman, the other an American man who were both injured by flying shrapnel in the stomach and had to undergo minor surgery. They are both said to be recovering well."
The police are now investigating the incident - what do we know about the attack today?
"Well, the main message to the public is that this was not a terrorist attack - but a criminal act related to the underworld. It was an attack aimed at the Israeli owner of the casino who was sitting in a parked car -an armoured security vehicle actually -outside the casino at the time. At a time of terrorist threats from Al Qaida this was people's main concern and the Prime Minister was on the site of the accident within minutes assuring the public that this was really not the case.
"Having said that, although the public is relieved that Prague was not the site of a terrorist attack - the very fact that such a thing should have happened in the city centre on a peaceful, sunny afternoon has evoked a great deal of concern. People are still shaken by the news and I think it has it has heightened the feeling that one can't feel totally safe anywhere..."
A lot of the injured - the vast majority of them in fact - are foreigners. News of the explosion made headlines around the world - how will this effect tourism to the Czech Republic - will people think twice about going to Prague, do you think?
I looked back over the last 10 years or so to find out just how often that sort of thing happens in this country - and as of 1995 there's pretty much been some kind of small explosion every year, but not many of them have caused serious harm - and many of them have happened at night. For instance, there was an explosion at the Kotva department store in Prague in 1999, which happened at night, an explosive device which damaged the monument to communist victims here in Prague - again at night - this happened last year. There was an explosion in a Prague 1 garbage can in 1997 in which two tourists sustained light injuries, for which the perpetrator was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
And by far the most serious of all was an explosion on the Old Town Square in 1990 in which a German tourist was badly injured - she lost an eye in the explosion and around 10 others suffered light injuries. It is not clear who was responsible for that.
So all in all, I suppose you could say that Prague is not less safe than any other European or world city in the present day. And both government and tourist officials seem confident that this incident will not tarnish the Czech Republic's image as an attractive tourist destination."
