(source: Sme)
Police detained a man who made it to the locked Grassalkovič Palace in Bratislava which serves as the presidential palace at night from May 27 to 28. The man is a 35-year-old Czech.
The intruder entered the garden and then found an unlocked back door which is used by personnel and entered the palace. He walked up the stairs to the highest floor where he spent around 20 minutes.
“He triggered a security alarm on this floor and this alarm was determined as false and was turned down,” reads the president office’s press release.
The intruder then left the building through another entrance which he opened from the inside.
The Office for Protection of Constitutional Officials at the Interior Ministry (UOUCaDM) is responsible for the presidential palace security 24/7. A bomb squad together with police checked the palace but found nothing unusual or missing.
In the wake of the security breach, UOUCaDM director Radovan Horváth has already tendered his resignation. Interior Minister Robert Kaliňá of Smer has not yet decided whether or not to accept it although the ministry claimed that there will be consequences for personnel.
President Andrej Kiska called the security incident an unpleasant surprise.
“The unpleasant surprise lies in finding out that someone can spend 20 minutes in the Palace without running into anyone,” Kiska said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “I hope that officials will do their utmost to prevent anything of this kind from happening ever again.”
