“The patrolling police were the targets of Saturday night’s bomb explosion on Teréz körút in Budapest, they wanted to assassinate my police officers”, declared National Police Chief Károly Papp, who called the explosion an attack against the whole Hungarian police force.
At a press conference in Budapest the Chief of Police sent a message to the perpetrator, for whom a manhunt was launched on Saturday night, saying: he will be caught and his motivation will be determined.
“A homemade bomb containing shrapnel producing materials exploded on Saturday night; the perpetrator is a 170 centimetre tall, 20-25 year old male who was wearing a light-coloured fishing cap, a dark canvas jacket, blue jeans and white trainers”, he told the press. Mr. Papp also announced that a 10 million forint reward had been posted for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator.
The Standby Police’s National Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation against an unknown perpetrator for attempted murder.
According to Mr. Papp, hundreds of police are working on the case and are cooperating with the Counter-Terrorism Centre and secret services. Experts began investigating the crime scene on Saturday night, while police officers began searching for eye witnesses and seized 145 CCTV recordings. The evaluation of the recordings has been started by the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) and the Counter-Terrorism Information and Crime Analysis Centre (TIBEK).
The Chief of Police also announced that according to protocol during Saturday night he had ordered tightened checks for explosives and explosive materials at Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport and road border crossing stations, as well as the checking and accompaniment of all international passenger trains.
A free information number has been in operation at the NNI since Sunday morning and police are redirecting all calls with information pertaining to the bombing to the National Bureau of Investigation. 14 reports have been made so far, he said.
Mr. Papp also told reporters that the two casualties of the explosion have had the required operations, the policewoman suffered life-threatening injuries and the policeman suffered serious injuries; both of them are in satisfactory and stable condition and the policewoman continues to be kept under anaesthesia. The head of the National Police Headquarters indicated that the police was providing all possible assistance towards the recovery of the injured and had informed their families overnight.
At the press conference, Head of the Central Investigating Chief Prosecutor's Office (KNYF) Imre Keresztes told reporters: overnight the Chief of Police had informed him that a crime had been committed against two on-duty police officers acting in their official capacity, which is sufficient grounds for the case to be taken over by the KNYF.
According to the Chief Prosecutor, several prosecutors have been sent to the crime scene to become familiar with the evidence and to help with the investigation. All conditions are given for the procedure “to continue without interruption” when they take over the case on Monday, he stated.
In reply to a question, the National Police Chief told reporters that the police officers were on patrol in the area, meaning they had not replied to a call and were not in the process of taking official police action.
In answer to a question concerning whether anything indicated that one of the members of the patrolling pair of police officers was the target of the crime, he replied that the dual police patrol was itself the target.
In reply to another question, Mr. Papp told reporters: The injured policewoman was involved in recruiting activities for Budapest Police Headquarters and will continue to do so in future. In reply to a question concerning whether the bombing was a terrorist attack, he said the Police had set up seven versions of a possible motive for the attack and are in the process of analysing them.
According to Mr. Papp, the area around the blast will remain closed to the public until the head of the crime scene investigation team indicates to the head of the National Bureau of Investigation that the examination of the area is complete. As National Chief of Police he doesn’t want to involve himself in this procedure, he said.
In reply to a question concerning the whereabouts of the perpetrator, Mr. Papp said he was not prepared to answer that question in the interests of the investigation.
At the beginning of the press conference four sound recordings were played on which the male member of the patrol team asked for assistance following the explosion. The police officer is first heard talking about the fact that there was an explosion on Teréz körút, then asking for help and informing headquarters that a police officer was unconscious and finally asking for an ambulance for his injured partner.