Prague - A Roma toddler and her parents were seriously
injured in an apparent petrol bomb attack overnight on their house in
north-eastern Czech Republic, police said Sunday.
The victims said someone threw Molotov cocktails in their house in
the town of Vitkov, setting it ablaze shortly before midnight, police
spokeswoman Sona Stetinska told the German Press Agency dpa.
She said that police unearthed charred shards of a glass container
in the ruins, which could have contained an 'inflammable substance.'
Whether these were fire bomb fragments still had to be determined by
experts.
Outgoing Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said he was
'seriously concerned by surging extremism,' urging authorities to
determine whether the incident had been racially motivated.
Police said the motive of the alleged attack was not immediately
known.
'We cannot confirm that it was racially motivated but we also
cannot rule it out,' a police spokeswoman said.
The 22-month-old toddler girl, rescued from the burning home by
her parents, was airlifted to hospital in the regional capital of
Ostrava in a critical condition, medical rescue services said.
She has suffered severe burns on 80 per cent of her body and
inhaled fumes, spokesman Lukas Humpl said in a statement.
Her mother, 27, sustained burns on her legs and one arm, while the
father, 33, had serious burns on his back and limbs, the statement
said.
The incident took place amid rising political activity of far-
right and neo-Nazi groups.
On the same night, far-right extremists had embarked on a highly-
publicized march through north-western Czech town of Usti nad Labem,
home to ghetto-like Roma communities 430 kilometres east of Vitkov.
Czech towns have struggled to ban extremist rallies as their
organizers exploit laws that safeguard freedom of assembly.
'It is clear that there is a link between political activation of
extremists and direct violence towards inhabitants,' the premier
said. He vowed that his outgoing cabinet would discuss the issue on
Monday.
Despite such rhetoric, far-right groups have continued their
activities unhampered. The government recently failed in its effort
to ban one such organisation, the Worker's Party.
Racist-tinged fire bomb attacks, some of them deadly, have also
recently shaken Hungary.
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