Man shoots at Czech President with plastic gun

A police officer holds a plastic gun used by a man to fire plastic pellets at Czech President Vaclav Klaus in the city of Chrastava September 28, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

PRAGUE - A 26-year-old man with a plastic pistol shot at Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Friday and slightly injured him in the right arm.

The incident was happened on a bridge opening ceremony in Chrastava, North Bohemia, and Klaus was surrounded by the crowd at that time.

According to witnesses, the attacker took a plastic gun which is used in game, repeatedly squeezed the trigger and shot plastic pellets.

The attacker was later detained a few hundred meters from the place of the incident.

Klaus himself refused to comment on the incident and stayed at the ceremony to make his speech. Later in the afternoon, Klaus left for the Central Military Hospital to treat the slight injury of his arm.

"I was standing next to the president but I could see nothing, I noticed nothing. I could hear a few clicks but I believed these were sounds on the nearby stage where a band was playing," Chrastava Mayor Michael said after the incident, local media reported. He said he heard Klaus reproaching his bodyguards words such as "you failed to react appropriately."

A video presented by Czech local TV media showed a man in the crowd pulling out a pistol, aiming at the passing-by president and squeezing the trigger several times. Klaus looks surprised and then he turns to his bodyguard irritated.

The attacker, who is now under investigation, said that politicians were "blind and deaf to people's complaints" and this was the only chance for him to show the dissatisfaction.