Dongres becomes new chief of president's security guards

Prague, Oct 4 (CTK) - Petr Dongres has become a new chief of the Czech president's protection section to replace Jiri Sklenka who resigned after an airsoft gun attack on President Vaclav Klaus last week, Police Presidium spokesman Tomas Hulan told CTK Thursday.

Deputy police president Tomas Kuzel charged Dongres with heading the section on Wednesday, Hulan said.

The Lidovky.cz server has reported that Dongres is one of the most experienced members of the section.

A 26-year-old left-leaning man shot plastic pellets from an airsoft pistol from a close distance at Klaus in Chrastava, north Bohemia, last Friday. Then he left the site of the incident without Klaus's bodyguards intervening and he even gave an interview to media before his arrest.

The attacker, Pavel Vondrous, said his act was to point to the fact that politicians did not listen to people.

Police later accused him of breach of the peace.

Klaus's bodyguards probably failed. The General Inspection of Security Forces (GIBS) is checking their steps.

A group headed by Kuzel also looked into the circumstances of the incident.

It mainly blamed the bodyguards for not having detained the attacker.

The daily Pravo writes that the working group has concluded that the bodyguards failed as they had not taken the president to a safe place immediately after the incident.

Besides, the guards stood too far from one another.

An expert team also recommended to change tactics in similar situations. Kuzel was assigned to work out a concept of the personal protection services with the police.