Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop- police

PRAGUE — A 16-year-old boy killed two women in a knife attack in a shop in the Czech Republic on Thursday morning, police said, adding the motive was unclear.

Police arrested the teenager, a Czech national, minutes after the attack in a shopping area on the outskirts of Hradec Kralove, around 100 kilometres east of Prague.

"Both of those attacked suffered injuries which were so serious that they could not be saved despite all efforts of the rescuers," police said on X.

Czech media said the teenager attacked a shop assistant at the counter and another worker in a service area of the store.

TV footage from the site showed police patrolling outside a discount store.

"We are currently looking into the attacker's motives," police said on X.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed condolences to the families of the victims, calling the murders "an incomprehensible, horrendous act".

Terror attacks are rare in the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, but in 2023 a student killed 14 people and wounded 25 in a shooting rampage at a Prague university.

The Czech Republic's southern neighbour Austria is reeling from the murder of a teenager in a knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker in the city of Villach at the weekend.