Prague - Martin Mejstřík, senator for Prague 1, said yesterday he intends to file a police report accusing Prague Mayor Pavel Bém for a cave-in of soil in the Stromovka park.

On Sunday, the soil in the park sank in a place under which the Blanka tunnel is being built, leaving a wide crater on the surface. It was the second cave-in this year.

Two police reports on an unknown perpetrator have already been filed, one by the environmental group Arnika and one by the Prague mayor.

Mejstřík now wants to file a report specifically against Bém, whom the senator holds co-responsible for exposing the public to a safety threat. The announcement came just two days before the regional elections and Senate by-elections.

Is the tunnel to blame?

Arnika asserts that the cave-ins were allowed by an insufficient geological survey of the subsoil in an area under which the Blanka tunnel, connecting Letná and Trója, is being dug.
 
"That might explain why there have already been two craters in Stromovka," says Arnika's Centre for the Support of Public.

František Polák, spokesman for Metrostav, the construction company building the tunnel under Stromovka, has denied the allegations.

"That's obviously not true," he told Aktuálně.cz, adding that the subsoil is being regularly monitored a by a specialised firm and that the last check was done on Friday. "The monitoring revealed no changes, no problems."