Czech Republic: Teenager stabbed two women to death

Police in the Czech Republic reported that a 16-year-old teenager stabbed and killed two women early Thursday. The motive for the attack is still under investigation.

"The whole incident is tragic. Although we were on the scene within minutes of the announcement, the two women were injured so seriously that they could not be saved despite the best efforts of all those who intervened," police said in a brief statement posted on social media.

The suspect, a Czech national, was arrested minutes after the incident, which occurred around 07:30 GMT in a store located in a commercial area on the outskirts of Hradec Králové, a town with a population of 90,000 about 100 kilometers from Prague.

The incident took place shortly after the store opened, as reported by AFP. Czech media indicated that the assailant attacked a saleswoman behind the counter and another employee in the stockroom.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed his condolences to the victims' families and condemned the act as incomprehensible and terrible.

Authorities noted that in the past two years, there has been an approximate 25% increase in the number of children committing violent crimes.

"In this case we will be interested not only in the aggressor's data, but also in the circumstances of the attack, the relations with the environment and the motivation," the police stated.