An explosion rocked the Libavá military area before noon on Monday, killing a soldier. Seven other soldiers and one civilian worker were injured and were rushed to two hospitals in neighboring Olomouc. All are out of danger and three have even been able to return to their homes to continue recovering.
Jana Cernochová|Photo: Luděk Peřina, ČTK
Defense Minister Jana Černochová traveled to the area and from there deeply mourned the loss. As in memory are the explosions at the Verbětice ammunition warehouse in 2014, in which two workers died, and of which years later the Czech secret services published evidence that they had been the work of Russian military intelligence agents; or with the recent strange episode of a frustrated attempt at an act classified as terrorism in Prague in which the Kremlin was also blamed, who more or less thought whether this explosion might not be a new Russian sabotage operation. In addition, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are expected to train in the Libavá area this year, although all the victims are Czech nationals. But the Minister of Defense ruled out the hypothesis of the attack.
“There is no suspicion at this time that it was sabotage, but it really seems like a very tragic event that occurred during the handling of ammunition.”
Jiří Šedivý|Photo: Věra Luptáková, Český rozhlas
The type of ammunition has not been revealed at the moment. As for the cause, they assure that it must have been a technical or human failure during maneuvers that should have led to the liquidation of explosives. The high number of victims indicates that it had to be a completely unexpected detonation, according to what the former head of the Czech General Staff, General Jiří Šedivý, told Czech Radio.
“The exercise program must be carefully worked out, who has what responsibility, what will be done, what the procedures will be and, of course, what ammunition will be used and, logically, how the ammunition will be disposed of. These are routine procedures with which the bomb bombers are familiar, so it will be necessary to investigate why the explosion occurred, given that there was a considerable group of soldiers near the ammunition, which should not happen in the final phase of the explosion. detonation”.
It will, therefore, be the investigation and the testimony of the eight survivors that will clarify what happened this Monday in Libavá. At the moment, the Military Police is investigating the case as suspicion of homicide due to negligence and suspicion of damage to health due to negligence, as reported this Tuesday. Meanwhile, exercises in the military area have already resumed.
