Nový Jičín - A special police investigative team called Comenius that is in charge of the Studénka train cash, arrested two suspects.
"Police has arrested Wednesday night two men in connection to the train accident," Miroslava Šálková-Michálková, Nový Jičín police spokesperson, confirmed the information to the media.
However, she declined to elaborate further because of the information embargo imposed by state prosecutor Aleš Kopal.
The international EuroCity express train, traveling from the Polish city of Krakow to the Czech capital Prague, crashed August 8 at nearly full speed into a collapsed bridge obstructing the railway near the town of Studénka close to the Moravian city of Ostrava, some 400 kilometres east of Prague.
Seven people were killed and around 70 injured during one of the worst train accidents in the Czech Republic in the living memory, some still fighting for their lives in local hospitals.
Read more: Train crash near Czech-Polish border kills seven
More information later
According to information available to Aktuálně.cz, the two men arrested are employees of the Bögl and Krýsl branch of Ostrava construction company, which handled the bridge metal construction.
"As soon as the police files charges against the two men, we will hold a press conference and give more information," said the police spokesperson.
The company confirmed the two employees had been arrested. "I am rather taken aback," said the company´s manager Miroslav Kovalík. "They are splendid experts and they have been working in the field for many years."
Secret investigation
According to the investigative team´s head who spoke to public service Czech TV the bridge collapsed because of the neglected work of the construction workers.
Allegedly, the workers did not use sufficient number of cradles that would safely hold the bridge.
The police investigation should answer two things: who is responsible for the bridge collapse and why there was no speed restriction imposed during the bridge reconstruction. The EuroCity train was traveling up to 140 kilometers per hour.
The bridge reconstruction was commissioned by the Moravian-Silesian Region authorities. "The final decision has not been made yet but we are considering terminating the contract with the Ostrava construction company," said Evžen Tošenovský, the region's governor.
