The number of children committing violent crimes has increased by about 25% in the Czech Republic in the past two years, according to data released yesterday by Czech Police following the news of a double murder committed by a teenage boy.
Police arrested a 16-year-old youth suspected of stabbing two women to death in a shop in Hradec Kralove yesterday morning. They are investigating the case as a double murder.
Politicians described the attack as incomprehensible, horrific and brutal, and offered their condolences to the families of the victims.
According to police statistics, children aged under 18 committed 1,080 violent crimes last year, including ten murders, up from 947 violent crimes and nine murders in 2023. Just a year earlier, 701 violent crimes and seven murders by minors were reported.
“For the current case, we will be interested not only in the person of the attacker, but also in the circumstances of the attack, his relations with the neighborhood and motivation,” wrote the police.
Detectives are now interviewing witnesses and securing CCTV footage. The motive of the attacker is not yet clear.
Two female shop assistants at a shop in Hradec Kralove died yesterday morning after the knife attack. Police arrested the 16-year-old boy from the town about ten minutes later less than a kilometre from the scene, and a knife with a 20-centimetre blade was found near the shop. Police have confirmed media reports that this was a random attack.
Dozens of police officers as well as psychological responders were at the scene of the crime. The National Counter Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime Centre is also looking into the case.
