Šafárikovo Námestie square in Bratislava. (source: Marko Erd)
Last Friday night, a knife attack occured at Šafárikovo Námestie square in Bratislava's centre. An unidentified man attacked a 20-year old man who talked to three more in Hungarian, reports Sme daily, referring to a Hungarian news site in Slovakia, Paraméter, which broke the story.
The four men came to a fast food stand at the square. Their talking in Hungarian was reportedly the reason why the unknown attacker came to them with a knife which he put to the 20-year-old's neck. The attack is said to have a jacket with a logo of the Slovan football club based in Bratislava.
The attacker then run away, leaving the other with a small cut on the neck.
Both Hungarian press and the Hungarian Alliance party consider the incident an attack motivated by ethnic intolerance.
"We cannot allow [Slovakia] to return to the times when we were afraid to speak Hungarian on the streets of the Slovak capital, when sports fans or students in Nitra were beaten just because they were Hungarian," reads the statement on the party's Facebook page.
According to the Bratislava police, the attacker asked the four men whether they are from Hungary, upon which one of them told him in Slovak that they are. The case is currently being investigated by criminal police, as there is suspicion of committing a crime of extremism.
After the incident, the injured man came to the police department. Criminal prosecution has been initiated for the offense of disorderly conduct in conjunction with the offense of bodily harm.
