Anti-Israel group claims responsibility for blaze at Czech arms maker |
Czech police are investigating a fire at an arms company on Friday as a potential terrorist attack, the interior minister said, after an anti-Israel group claimed responsibility.
The blaze, which did not cause injuries, broke out at a warehouse in a business park in the central city of Pardubice, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Prague, before dawn, the fire brigade said.
“We are examining all available information. There is a likely link to a terror attack,” Interior Minister Lubomir Metnar said on X.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš called the news “very serious.”
Czech police chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters that police were investigating “a deliberately started blaze” and “intensively seeking those who committed the crime.”
Arms producer LPP Holding, which develops and makes products for civilian and military use, such as drone technologies used by Ukraine’s armed forces in the war against Russia, said in a statement that the fire was at its premises.
Two Czech media reported they had received an email from a group called the Earthquake Faction saying it had set fire to “a key production center for Israeli weapons.”
The Voxpot news site, which received the Earthquake Faction’s statement, said the group’s “internet domain was registered yesterday.”
“We are verifying the reliability of the information,” the police said on X.
The fire brigade said the blaze destroyed a warehouse made of metal and spread to an administrative building in the business park before it was put out.
LPP Holding, which develops and produces drones and other military equipment, said in a statement that “a fire broke out in one of our buildings this morning” and that it was cooperating with investigators.
LPP Holding had previously said it was planning to open a center to develop and produce drones and train personnel in cooperation with Israeli Elbit Systems, a military technology company.
Over the past two years, Elbit has been inking contracts with global customers even as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters have assailed the firm, negative sentiment toward Israel has been growing, and arms embargoes have been floated over Israel’s conduct during the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
In 2024, a 13-year-old boy, instructed and armed by others, opened fire on Elbit’s Swedish office, and men planted explosives there in the same year.
The Palestine Action group was charged with breaking into Elbit’s British factory, also in 2024. Some eight months later, in June 2025, Palestine Action activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized two planes, causing an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage. The following month, Britain proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, making it a crime to be a member.
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
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