The Krasna Horka castle |
Police were
investigating two boys on suspicion that they set grass at the foot of the
Krasna Horka castle on fire on Saturday when they tried to light up cigarettes,
said Jana Mesarova, police spokeswoman for the eastern Slovak region of Kosice.
Children under the age of 15 cannot be prosecuted in Slovakia.
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children start smoking every year]
"A unit
sent to the site found that two local boys aged 11 and 12 were trying to light
up a cigarette and because of careless use of safety matches, they set grass at
the castle hill on fire," Mesarova said.
The castle
subsequently caught fire and emergency services deployed 84 fire-fighters to
the scene.
The Slovak
National Museum wrote on its Facebook page that damage to the castle was
extensive but about 90 percent of historical collections were saved, including
contemporary photographs of furnished castle premises from the turn of the 19th
and 20th centuries, oil paintings and various ornaments.