In the early morning of August 12th, a driver refused to stop for a standard police check. It was 4am, when the police began to pursue a van that was on the D1 highway on its way to Prague. The incident turned into a huge chase in which several police patrols were involved including an emergency motorized unit. Minutes later, the van crashed into a tree in Holešovice. The driver fled from the vehicle thereafter, followed by immigrants. According to the intervening police unit, around 30 migrants, who likely decided to take an illegal route for their move into Europe, were hiding in the luggage space of the vehicle. 23 of the Syrian newcomers were almost instantly captured by the Prague police. Another six passengers were exposed by police helicopters when attempting to seek shelter in a nearby bush. The Police of the Czech Republic released a video on their social media that displays the arrest. It shows that the majority of the seized individuals were young men and as the police claims, they were mostly Syrians. They are now in the hands of the Czech Department of Foreign Police, who will investigate how they managed to cross the border and whether the migrants have an asylum request. The driver was found and arrested in the Stromovka park and is now facing criminal proceedings that could result in several years of prison. There is still an ongoing search for other migrants that might have escaped from the scene.
