Czech police are investigating a fire at an arms company as a potential terrorist attack, the interior minister said on Friday, after an anti-Israel group claimed responsibility.
The blaze broke out before dawn at a warehouse in a business park in the central city of Pardubice. No injuries were reported, according to the fire brigade.
“We are examining all available information. There is a likely link to a terror attack,” interior minister Lubomír Metnar said on X.
Police chief Martin Vondrášek said officers were investigating “a deliberately started blaze” and were “intensively seeking those who committed the crime.”
Arms producer LPP Holding confirmed the fire occurred at its premises, stating that it is cooperating with investigators.
Two Czech media outlets reported receiving an email from a group calling itself the Earthquake Faction, which claimed it had set fire to “a key production centre for Israeli weapons.”
Police said they were “verifying the reliability of the information.”
LPP Holding, which develops and produces drones and other military equipment, said “a fire broke out in one of our buildings this morning” and confirmed cooperation with authorities.
The Czech news agency CTK reported that LPP had recently unveiled plans to produce drones with Israel’s Elbit Systems, a defence company that has been targeted in a series of attacks across Europe.
In 2024, a 13-year-old boy—allegedly instructed and armed by others—opened fire on Elbit’s Swedish office, while explosives were planted at the same site in a separate incident that year.
The group Palestine Action was also charged in 2024 over a break-in at an Elbit factory in Britain.
The news site Voxpot, which received the Earthquake Faction’s statement, reported that the group’s internet domain had been registered only a day earlier.
The fire brigade said the blaze destroyed a metal warehouse and spread to an administrative building before being brought under control.
The Czech Republic—an EU and NATO member with a population of 10.9 million—is a staunch ally of Israel, which is currently engaged in a regional conflict involving Iran and Lebanon following its war with Hamas in Gaza.
