Prague police seek man who threatened a family with a knife on tram 22

Prague police are searching for an unknown man who, shortly before 4 p.m. on Saturday, threatened a family with a crying child with a knife and with death on tram No. 22 between the Malostranská and Malostranské náměstí stops. The aggressor was captured on CCTV cameras.

According to police spokesman Richard Hrdina, a family with a small child was riding the tram, and the child was crying. This so enraged the stranger that he began shouting loudly and abusively at the family. The child cried even harder out of fear, the man's aggression grew, and he pulled a knife from his pocket and began threatening the people.

“Calm the child down or I’ll kill you”

According to an eyewitness, the man first attacked verbally: he demanded that the child be quieted and threatened to kill the child and the parents. Then, at the Malostranské náměstí stop, he got off and disappeared. A witness reported the incident to 158, and since then detectives of the 1st Prague I police department have been searching for the man without success.

Cameras captured the suspect, who, according to the police description, looked like a homeless person. He was wearing high leather boots, black shorts with a white stripe on the sides and a black T-shirt, and was holding a brown faux-leather jacket and another jacket with an orange lining. Police ask anyone who recognizes him or has information about him to call 158. Investigators are also looking for the family itself.

The case is being handled by officers of the so-called “murder squad”, which investigates the most serious crimes in the capital. It is being examined as extortion, for which the suspect faces up to eight years in prison.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz