Thousands of Danish teenagers are on their way back from a winter holiday in Prague but media reports suggest that far from all the teens behaved like model citizens.
Early on Monday morning, one Danish student stabbed another outside a nightclub, and again in the early hours of Wednesday another student was stabbed by a fellow Dane outside the Hotel Panorama, where many of the students were staying.
“I can confirm that there was an altercation between Danish students at the Hotel Panorama [Wednesday] morning which resulted in a young man being stabbed with a knife,” the Danish ambassador to the Czech Republic, Christian Hoppe, told Ritzau.
After the student was rushed to hospital from the hotel covered in blood, armed police searched the hotel looking for the assailant, who is now thought to be on the run.
The incident left the students in disarray as their planned checkout on Wednesday was delayed while the Czech police carried out an investigation. A police spokesperson confirmed to Politiken newspaper that they have not yet apprehended the assailant.
“There have been quite a number of incidents involving Danes in a single day,” police spokesperson Eva Kropacova told Politiken. “We are shocked by how badly some tourists behave in our city and how much they destroy.”
Kropacova added that Danish students staying in Prague were responsible for tens of thousands of kroner of damage in several hotels across the city. She added that the police had to call in reinforcements to deal with the number of students. According to TV2 News, between two and three hundred students from upper secondary schools in Næstved travelled to Prague last Friday and were staying at the Panorama.
According to Kropacova, one hotel suffered 30,000 kroner of damages that was covered by a deposit paid by the students before checking in. Toilets, fire extinguishers and furniture were all damaged. She added that the damages to Hotel Panorama had not yet been covered.
The travel agent responsible for organising the trip, Rejsemægleren, said that around 4,500 Danish students would be returning to Denmark throughout Wednesday.
