A would-be cannibal arrested after a shoot-out with police on Tuesday in Kysak (Košice Region) died at Louis Pasteur Hospital in Košice on Thursday, the TASR newswire reported, citing hospital spokesperson Jaroslava Oravcová.
The man, named as Matej Čurko, 43, was hospitalised on May 10 with injuries to his internal organs, shoulder and face. "Surgery [on Čurko] took more than five hours and required the involvement of ten surgeons and three anaesthetists," said Oravcová. However, the patient's state remained critical and he subsequently died of circulatory and organ failure.
Police had tracked an e-mail communication between Čurko and a Swiss citizen in which the Swiss had agreed to be killed and eaten. Čurko – who possessed four legally-held guns – was supposed to drug him, stab him in the heart and quarter him. His remains were to be hidden in woodland – laced with pepper in order to mask the scent and prevent animals from finding the body – and to be eaten over time. However, when the Swiss found out that Čurko was serious about the deal, he reported everything to Swiss police, who alerted the Slovak police via Interpol. Slovak police deployed an agent, who, pretending to be the prospective victim, lured Čurko to a meeting on Tuesday morning in Kysak. Čurko showed up armed, however, and a gunfight with police ensued. He managed to wound a police officer but was himself shot five times by snipers. Police secured a number of knives, saws and a body bag at the crime scene. The injured officer is in an induced coma, but his condition is reported to be stable.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
