PRAGUE — The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died Wednesday in an explosion that occurred when he opened an old safe that had been left untouched for more than 20 years, officials said.
Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal, 56, was at home with his wife at the time of the explosion, according to Palestinian Embassy spokesman Nabil El-Fahel. Jamal was rushed to a hospital, where he later died, police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova said.
It appeared that the door of the safe had been booby-trapped, Zoulova said.
Foreign Minister Riad Malki of the Palestinian Authority said no foul play was suspected, noting that the safe had not been touched for more than 20 years. The safe had recently been moved from the old embassy building, but it had come from a building that used to house the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s offices in the 1980s, Malki said.
‘‘The ambassador decided to open it,’’ Malki said. “After he opened it, apparently something happened inside, and it went off.’’
It was not immediately clear how Malki knew the safe had not been touched for more than 20 years or why and when the safe would have been booby-trapped. During the 1980s, before the fall of the Soviet Union, the PLO had close ties with many Eastern bloc countries. In recent years relations have been tense, and the Czech government was seen as largely taking Israel’s side in the Mideast conflict, said Nabil Shaath, a foreign affairs veteran and leading official in the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.
‘‘The safe was sitting neglected in one of the areas of the old embassy,” Malki said. “It was in one of the corners. No one had touched it for 20 to 25 years.”
The embassy recently moved to a new complex.
‘‘The ambassador wanted to know what was in the safe,’’ Malki said. ‘‘He opened it and asked his wife to bring a paper and a pen to write down the contents of the safe. She left him to bring pen and paper. During that time, she heard the sound of an explosion.’’
The ambassador and his wife were alone in the building at the time because it was a holiday, Malki said.
Martin Cervicek, the country’s top police officer, told Czech public television that nothing was immediately found to suggest that the diplomat had been a victim of a crime.
Cervicek later said that police found another safe at the embassy complex and were checking it, but that no other explosives were found.
Prague rescue service spokeswoman Jirina Ernestova said Jamal was placed in a medically induced coma when he first arrived at Prague Military Hospital. Dr. Daniel Langer, who works there, told public television that Jamal had suffered serious abdominal injuries, as well as injuries to his chest and head.
Jamal was born in 1957 in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp. His family was originally from Jaffa, in what is now Israel. He joined Fatah in 1975. In 1979, he was appointed deputy ambassador in Bulgaria. He served as a diplomat in Prague beginning in 1984 and in Egypt from 2005 to 2013. In October 2013, he was appointed ambassador to Prague.