Interior minister defends police operation in Uherský Brod

Interior Minister Milan Chovanec has once again defended the police operation in the town of Uherský Brod where a deranged man shot eight people dead in a pub on Tuesday. The interior minister told commercial TV Prima that on the grounds of the information he had the police could not be faulted in its actions. He said, however, that should it emerge from the ongoing investigation that the police had failed in its duty then corrective measures would be taken. Some witnesses have criticized the police over their handling of the incident, saying that had they acted faster and more professionally they could have saved lives. Chovanec argued that when the police negotiated with the attacker they thought he was holding hostages and had no idea that the eight remaining people in the pub were already dead.