Police link call to bomb at Prague's Ikea

Prague, Sept 4 (CTK) - The Czech police received a phone call from abroad warning against a bomb that would blast in Prague on September 3, the day on which an explosive was found in an IKEA store in the city, Deputy Police President Vladislav Husak told Czech Television (CT) yesterday.

Police Squad for Uncovering Organised Crime (UOOZ) head Robert Slachta said detectives investigating the bomb attack would use available information on similar cases of explosives found in IKEA stores in Belgium, France and the Netherlands in May.

A guard revealed the explosive in a waste basket near an IKEA store in Prague-Zlicin at noon on Friday.

The police found no other bombs yet they preventively evacuated three other IKEA stores in Prague-Cerny Most, Brno and Ostrava.

Media reported on Saturday that the bomb would probably blast around 17:00 if it had not been revealed and defused.

Husak said the police received a call saying a bomb would explode on Friday afternoon somewhere in Prague.

Slachta said the bomb would not destroy the IKEA store but seriously threaten the lives of people who happened to be near it.

Czech detectives are cooperating with their colleagues abroad, Slachta said.

According to Prima TV, the BIS counter-intelligence and the anti-terrorist police unit take part in the investigation.

IKEA estimated the damaged by the evacuation at tens of millions of crowns.

IKEA's spokesman Petr Chadraba said the firm toughened security measures in its stores in the Czech Republic as of Saturday.

($1=17.053 crowns)