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A young man wielding a plastic gun fired pellets at Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Friday, hitting him on the arm but causing no injuries.

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The attacker wearing military camouflage approached Klaus during a ceremony to open a bridge in Chrastava, a village 100 km north of Prague, television footage showed.

He opened fire with a handgun that fires plastic pellets used in a game called airsoft, similar to paintball, Nova TV said on its website.

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The attacker told a Nova reporter the government was “blind and deaf to the laments of the people” before he was arrested.

“You really did not manage this well,” Nova quoted Klaus as telling his bodyguards.

The attacker managed to get within a meter of the leader and walked away after the attack before he was detained by police.

Klaus, 71, whose second and final term ends next March, is a popular figure in the central European EU country.

But his sharp criticism of the euro, EU integration and efforts to halt global warming as well as his friendly stance towards Russia have won him some enemies.

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Further reading:

• The faithful atheist: Speak freely, just don’t suggest there is a God • Human rights case seeks equal billing for religion and atheism in schools • Jonathan Kay: Even atheists should read the Bible • How the New Atheists are turning atheism into a religion