Prague- Thieves have stolen a 13-metre iron footbridge in eastern Czech Republic with the probable intention of selling it for scrap, local police said on Monday.

"They cut it up with an oxy-fuel torch and took it away," said police spokeswoman Alena Nedelnikova.

Theft of metal for scrap, driven by soaring global scrap-metal prices, has plagued the Czech Republic for years but in recent months thieves appear bolder than ever.

In April, scrap-metal sellers snatched more than 800 bronze name- tablets from the Theresienstadt Holocaust memorial cemetery.

Police also suspect a scrap-metal robbery behind a disappearance of a four-ton iron railway bridge early this year in the west of the country. (dpa)