Czech police arrest suspected Norway killer sympathizer

A 29-year-old Czech man suspected of planning a copycat bomb attack inspired by Norwegian mass killer Ander Behring Breivik has been remanded in custody, police said Sunday.

“The man was remanded in custody. The enquiry is ongoing,” a police spokeswoman said in Ostrava, the Czech republic's third biggest city.

“He has been charged with endangering public security and illegal possession of arms,” she added.

Police swooped on the man's apartment in the northeast city on August 10 and found a large stash of weapons including an automatic weapon, a bomb and other explosive material.

Ostrava police chief Radovan Vojta said the suspect was believed to have sympathized with Breivik because he was using his name online.

On July 22, 2011, Breivik set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people, before going to an island and gunning down another 69 people, mostly teenagers.

Vojta said it was not immediately known who the suspect, whose name was not released, may have been targeting, adding that the investigation was in its early stages.

A quick-reaction force arrested him at his apartment after about 80 building residents were evacuated.

The man has been convicted of several past offences, and was handed a six-month suspended sentence in 2010 for exploding a homemade bomb at an Ostrava pumping station.

Neighbors told the CTK news agency that the man was not a right-wing extremist but was mentally unhinged.