• 12/28/2023

    Some 48 places in Czechia were under flood alert on Thursday morning, with the highest level of alert remaining in four places on the Labe (Elbe) River. Ten places reported a lower flood alert level at 05:00, according to the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute.

    Flood warnings are in place around the Labe and Morava rivers, as well as around the lower reaches of the Vltava and Ohře.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/28/2023

    The minister of the interior, Vít Rakušan, has asked mayors of municipalities in Czechia not to organise fireworks displays for New Year’s Eve in view of the recent mass shooting at a Prague university. Mr. Rakušan also called on members of the public to limit their use of pyrotechnics this year.

    Fourteen people were killed when a student went on a shooting rampage at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts on December 21. He had earlier shot dead a man and his baby daughter in woodlands near Prague.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    The student who killed 14 people in a shooting rampage at Prague’s Faculty of Arts left a letter saying he had also killed a father and his two-month-old daughter in woodland at Klánovice near the capital, the news outlet Deník N reported on Wednesday, saying that the police had found the document last week.

    The father and daughter were found murdered in Klánovice on December 15. The day after the 24-year-old student carried out the December 21 attack at the Faculty of Arts police said a ballistics report also tied him to the first crime.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    Nine people were injured when two trams collided in Brno on Wednesday late afternoon. Four suffered moderate injuries and the remainder sustained light injuries, with all nine being admitted to hospital, a spokesperson for the regional emergency services said.

    The accident occurred at the stop Krematorium on the city’s Jihlavská St. It was not necessary to use specialised equipment to free any of those injured, the fire service said.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    A large project to modernise Prague’s Smíchov Train Station should begin at the start of next year and cost over CZK 4 billion, a spokesperson for the Railway Administration said on Wednesday. All the station’s tracks and platforms will be renovated, while underpasses will be rebuilt and extended beneath the entire station, officials said. New lifts will also be installed.

    Meanwhile, the city authorities also plan to build a hub connecting all types of public transport in Smíchov, along with a P+R carpark, at a cost of CZK 8 billion.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    West Ham player Tomáš Souček dominated voting in the autumn part of Czechia’s Golden Ball award for footballer of the year. The 28-year-old midfielder, who is also the captain of the Czech national team, finished far ahead of the second-placed player, his West Ham teammate Vladimír Coufal.

    Ladislav Krejčí of Sparta Prague came third in the poll of sports journalists.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    Students and staff at the Faculty of Arts at Prague’s Charles University were allowed to return to collect personal items on Wednesday, Czech Television reported. Fourteen people were killed at the faculty last Thursday after a lone gunman went on the rampage in Czechia’s worst ever mass shooting.

    People were allowed to pick up their belongings at one entrance to the facility, on producing ID and signing for the items.

    The entrance to the main faculty building is completely covered in candles, with the spot on Jan Palach Square having become an informal memorial since the killings.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    Czech fire brigades dealt with a record number of 3,700 incidents over this year’s Christmas period, a spokesperson for the national fire service said on Wednesday. Initially fire officers were called out over problems caused by snow and strong winds, before a quick thaw meant that they had to respond to rising river levels.

    Most years fire brigades are deployed less than 1,000 times between December 24, when Czechs celebrate Christmas, and December 26.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 12/27/2023

    It should be mainly overcast in Czechia on Thursday, with an average high temperature of 8 degrees Celsius. Similar weather is expected on the following days.

  • 12/27/2023

    Some 72 percent of Czechs do not expect a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia in the next year, suggests a new poll by the Median agency for Czech Radio’s Radiožurnál station published on Wednesday.

    A slight majority of respondents in December’s survey, 51 percent, said they favoured countries such as the US continuing to support Ukraine at the same level in 2024.

    Almost two-thirds of Czechs do not fear that the Israel-Hamas conflict will spread beyond the region, the poll indicates.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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