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'Piano man' mystery plays on
29/05/2005 21:36 - (SA)
London - British police expressed scepticism on Sunday over a report that the mute piano virtuoso found wandering on an English beach last month could have belonged to a rock band in the Czech Republic.
"It's another one to add to the list" said a police spokesman.
More than 1 000 people have responded to an appeal for information that could help in identifying the mysterious pianist, and have suggested about 250 possible names, police said.
For the staff at the hospital where the pianist has been kept under observation since he was found on April 7, he is known as "Mr X."
Officials have no clues about his identity. When he was found, he was wearing a dripping dark suit and white shirt, from which all labels had been removed. He has not spoken since, and communicates only by playing the piano.
Earlier drummer Klaudius Kryspin that he recognised the silent pianist as Tomas Strnad, a former colleague in a rock band called Ropotamo.
"When I saw the pictures of this lost man in Britain, I knew immediately" that it was Tomas, Kryspin said according to British newspapers.
In Prague, another rocker, Michael Kocab, said that although he was a bit hazy about dates, he thought the piano man could be Strnad, whom he last saw at a service station in the outskirts of Prague early in April.
On that occasion, "He seemed very unsure of himself - he was clearly not all there," Kocab told the Prague newspaper Nedelni Svet. "He kept walking up and down behind me babbling something about wanting to go abroad, in all likelihood to America, to pursue his career."
The tall blond man, thought to be in his 20s or early 30s, was found April 7, but Kocab said he remembered that he had bumped into the man in the service station on April 10. On the other hand, he said, he had known Strnad all his life and was sure that he was the man he had seen.
- AFP
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