Police announced this on Twitter today, and regional police spokesmen Jiří Matzner and Milan Bajcura told reporters. The attacker faces five to 12 years in prison. Three of the four injured hospital employees were released by doctors for treatment at home today, said hospital spokesman Iva Nováková.

South Bohemian Region – Regional criminal investigators have charged a 29-year-old man with grievous bodily harm, who injured four people at a hospital in Č. Budějovice yesterday. At the same time, criminal investigators were processing a proposal to detain the man. #policiejck

— Czech Republic Police (@PolicieCZ) June 17, 2023

“Southern Bohemian detectives, in particular detectives from the Regional Police Directorate, took over the case yesterday (Friday) and are charging a twenty-nine-year-old man who attacked medical staff with a machete at the České Budějovice hospital. The man is now charged and criminal investigators are processing proposals to detain him,” Matzner told ČTK today.

The condition of four staff members of the psychiatric department of the Budejovice hospital, who were attacked and injured by a man with a machete on Friday, is stable, South Bohemian Governor Martin Cuba (ODS) told ČTK this morning. “Three employees have been released for home treatment,” a hospital spokesman said late in the day.

“No one’s life is in danger, all four remain under doctor’s care and condition is stable at the moment. That is the only positive news for today. All are in a condition that has not deteriorated. No damage since yesterday (Friday). Police last informed me that they have formed a team to investigate. They will deal with all available materials, cameras and stuff like that,” the governor said today.

A police spokesman told reporters on Friday that the assailant was pacified by staff members along with members of the security services, after which police took him into custody. Three rescue crews, including a doctor, responded to the scene, Zuzana Fajtlová, spokeswoman for the South Bohemian Region Medical Rescue Service, told ČTK on Friday.

Director of the České Budějovice Hospital, Michal Šnorek, said in a statement that the hospital, being an easy target, regularly trains against similar attacks. The last training session at the psychiatric ward took place last November. “It’s probably very complicated to prevent it (the attack),” the governor said Friday. Budějovice Hospital belongs to the South Bohemian Hospital, which is run by the South Bohemian Region.

Cases of serious attacks on patients or hospital staff are rare in the Czech Republic. Most tragic was the shooting in the waiting room of the Ostrava University Hospital polyclinic on 10 December 2019, in which a forty-two-year-old gunman killed seven people, injured two, and then killed himself.