Czech and Slovak police officers detained three suspects in a deliberate arson attack on an industrial workshop in the Czech town of Pardubice. The detainees include Czech and US citizens, Czech police said on social network X on 24 March.
“One person was detained in Slovakia thanks to co-operation with Slovak colleagues and the local prosecutor’s office, and two others were detained on our territory,” Czech police said in a statement.
The agency said the investigation was continuing and efforts were also being made to extradite the man detained in Slovakia.
The “earthquake faction” group that claimed involvement in Friday’s arson attack issued a statement on 24 March saying it had “secret documents” in its hands and would publish them if the LPP did not sever ties with Elbit Systems and “condemn the barbaric occupation of Palestine.” The deadline for this is 20 April, according to Aktuálně.cz.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on March 20 that a fire at an industrial workshop in the town of Pardubice, 100 kilometres east of Prague, was being investigated as a terrorist attack.
As a result of the fire on 20 March, one of the workshops of LPP Holding, which manufactures unmanned systems, including those supplied to Ukraine, burned down. The fire also occurred in its office. In December 2025, the company showed a Narwhal cruise missile with a range of more than 600 kilometres, which was planned to be handed over to the AFU.
A previously unknown “earthquake faction” claimed responsibility for the attack. The group links its actions to protest against the production of weapons for Israel at the Pardubice facility and “genocide against Palestine, Iran and Lebanon”.
It registered an Internet site the day before the arson attack and a Telegram channel after the incident. It published a video of two people setting fire to a hangar containing the company’s workshops. LPP Holdings representatives said the company wanted to participate in a tender announced by Israel’s Elbit in 2023, but it was cancelled.
LPP Holding confirmed that “a fire occurred at one of its facilities” and declined to “speculate about the causes or circumstances of the incident.”
LPP Holding said police are looking into possible Russian involvement in the arson in Pardubice. Police have not publicly commented on the possible Russian connection, but said the investigation is looking into various versions. Russia has previously categorically denied accusations of carrying out hybrid attacks in EU countries, Reuters noted.