Face mask sparks scuffle in Czech parliament

Scuffles broke out in in Czech parliament's lower house between a lawmaker who refused to wear a mandatory face mask and a chairman who switched off his microphone.

Independent lawmaker Lubomir Volny attended a debate over government's request to extend current state of emergency declared due to coronavirus pandemic without a face mask toger with anor colleague.

In one of his contributions to debate, Volny offended or lawmakers, prompting chairman Tomas Hanzel of junior coalition Social Democrats to try to silence him by turning off mic.

Volny reacted by walking to chairman and trying to speak into his microphone.

That resulted in a brief skirmish between Volny and several of Hanzel's colleagues who rushed to help him.

Lower house speaker Rek Vondracek called Volny's behaviour unacceptable and ordered him to leave session. house's mandate and immunity committee will be dealing with rare incident.

During debate, Volny also ridiculed coronavirus vaccines.

Ha was elected as an independent while running as a candidate for far right populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party.

Police say y will investigate Volny and anor independent lawmaker, Marian Bojko, for ir refusal to weak face masks in Parliament.