MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, 27 December 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, 26 December): BRATISLAVA - Police officers from Malacky (Bratislava region) carried out a preventive safety operation on Friday targeting hunters from one of the hunting associations in the Zahorie region who were preparing for the traditional St Stephen's Day hunt and detected no use of alcohol among any of the hunters, TASR learnt from Bratislava regional police spokesperson Katarina Bartosova on Friday. "The inspection focused mainly on verifying that the hunters were not under the influence of alcohol, as well as checking the possession of weapons and firearms licences," Bartosova said. She added that everything proceeded in line with legal regulations. According to police, the aim of the operation was to ensure a safe and lawful conduct of the hunt. KOSICE/BRATISLAVA – Police in the Kosice region has dealt over the past hours with two "rather unorthodox but quite dangerous incidents", involving minors behind the wheel of motor vehicles, TASR learnt from a police social media post on Friday. According to police, in the first case a 12-year-old underage boy was driving an Audi along road I/16 from the village of Plesivec towards Roznava. His drive ended directly in Roznava, where traffic police on duty stopped him. "In the second case, a 15-year-old underage lad probably wanted to impress an also underage girl and invited her for a ride in a BMW. After noticing a police patrol carrying out a road check between the villages of Jenkovce and Zahor, he likely panicked, veered off the road and crashed into a tree," police said. Neither incident required transport to a hospital and neither had fatal consequences. "In both cases, however, the boys clearly failed to realise that this was not a ride in a virtual game, where after a crash you continue with a repeated life, but driving in real road traffic, where every mistake can cost a real life – not only theirs, but also that of other road users. A minor sitting behind the wheel is not innocent fun, but an extremely dangerous gamble," reads the post. The police also warned parents to take an interest in how their children spend their free time and whether car keys are stored in a safe place or left freely accessible. VELKY SLAVKOV/BRATISLAVA – An incident occurred on the Tatra Electric Railway on Thursday (25 December), with traffic on the Velky Slavkov–Pod lesom section suspended for almost an hour and a half, spokesperson of the railway infrastructure owner ZSK Petra Lanikova confirmed to TASR on Friday. The story was first reported by TV Markiza. "ZSR confirm that on Thursday, 25 December, traffic on the Velky Slavkov–Pod lesom section was suspended from 3.43 p.m. to 5.10 p.m. due to an incident that is currently under investigation. We confirm that there was no collision and no passengers or staff were injured," said Lanikova. According to TASR information, the incident involved unauthorised movement of one of the trains at a station, but the trains did not meet on the same track. TV Markiza detailed that one of the trains was supposed to depart from the station earlier, while another was due to enter shortly afterwards. Thanks to the timely intervention of the dispatcher, however, the trains did not meet on the same track. mf