News

Czech police are investigating a forest fire in the Bohemian Switzerland area as a possible case of endangering public safety through negligence. A statement on the force’s website on Wednesday said that it was not possible to say what the penalty might be as the extent of the damage is not yet known.

The police said they were still trying to determine whether the incident was intentional or due to negligence.

Firefighters began dealing with the forest fire at the Bohemian Switzerland National Park, which is north of Prague, on Saturday.

Czechia’s Federation of Jewish Communities has come out against a planned concert by US rapper Kanye West in Prague. The organisation said it was unacceptable for somebody who has publicly expressed sympathy for Nazism to perform in a country that experienced the Holocaust.

The artist, who goes by the name Ye, is due to appear at the horse track in Prague’s Cuchle district on July 25.

Other European countries have banned Kanye West from performing over his racist and anti-Semitic statements. He has also sold swastika T-shirts and released a track called Heil Hitler.

Electricity prices in Czechia last year were the sixth highest in Europe, according to data from Eurostat cited on Wednesday by the Czech Energy Association.

By contrast, gas prices for Czech consumers were below the European average in 2025.

In the case of both electricity and gas, prices last year were below those in 2024. That trend is expected to fall this year, the Czech Energy Association said.

Firefighters have reduced the wildfire in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park from more than 100 hectares to five hectares and areal operations are no longer required, regional fire service spokesman Tomáš Kalvoda told the Czech News Aageny. Around 370 firefighters are expected to remain in the field on Wednesday and drones equipped with thermal cameras will monitor the no-fly zone to detect hidden hotspots.

Police have launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze.

Tomáš Salov, spokesman for the park administration, said natural causes could be ruled out because there had been no thunderstorms in the area. He said the fire was most likely caused by human activity, as was the case with the country’s largest wildfire, which struck the area around Hřensko four years ago.