Czechs send Italy replacements for seized masks

Czech authorities said on Monday they had sent 110,000 face masks to Italy as compensation for a contingent seized from traffickers that turned out to be part of a donation from China to Italy.

Described as a "theft" by some media, the seizure angered Italy, currently the global epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic with almost 5,500 deaths and its hospitals at breaking point.

There is a massive shortage of protective medical gear in Europe, including the face masks and hazmat suits that medical personnel need to lower the risk of infection with the deadly novel coronavirus.

"We've just sent 110,000 face masks to Italy by bus heading to Rome... along with 43 Italian tourists who could not get back home," Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek told AFP.

"The Czech Republic certainly didn't steal anything," Petricek said, adding that Prague had sent 10,000 more replacement masks of the "same type".

The Italian daily La Repubblica wrote on Saturday that Czech authorities seized Chinese masks intended for Italy's hospitals under guise of a sting against traffickers, in an article titled: "How the Czech Republic sequestered thousands of masks sent from China to Italy."