Czech Police arrest suspected shooter, investigate whether foreigners were his target

The Czech Police have arrested a man suspected of have fired at a public bus on Tuesday in the Bory quarter of Plzeň. They also confiscated the weapon that was probably used in the shooting.

Ivana Jelínková, spokesperson for the Regional Police, informed the Czech News Agency of the arrest last night. No one was injured in the incident.

"The public is no longer at risk of any danger," the spokesperson said. Police are working on the case and are expected to determined the legal qualification of the crime and decide on the charges today.

At the time of the shooting there were 90 people on the bus, mainly foreign nationals commuting to nearby factories. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party) tweeted today that police are determining to what degree the incident "might be yet another political provocation".

The issue of foreign nationals has been festering in Czech society recently, with the reception of refugees a sore point. The bus driver did not discover the vehicle had been shot at until all the passengers disembarked.  

He found three gunshot holes in the vehicle and called the police. While driving, he had believed the bus was having technical difficulties and that the back light had broken down.

The bullets damaged the back of the bus including the window. Kateřina Fránová, spokesperson for the Plzeň Municipal Transit Company, said that in recent years they have recorded only one other attack on one of their vehicles.

Last year someone shot through one of the small windows of a tram car there. No one was injured in that incident either.