Czech police have confirmed that the Prague shooter shot and killed himself yesterday after seeing police encircling him “from all directions,” the BBC reports.
Before committing suicide, a Charles University student killed 14 and injured 25—ten of them seriously—in the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting.
In a press conference on Thursday night, the city’s police chief, Martin Vondrášek, projected more bullet deaths. He labeled it “a premeditated violent attack,” noting global horrors.
The university’s arts department killings had no “connection with international terrorism,” according to Czech interior minister Vít Rakušan. Authorities found the gunman’s father deceased Thursday.
Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda told Czech TV: “We always thought this was something that did not concern us.” Unfortunately, lone shooters are increasing in our environment.
Police responded to a gunshot at Jan Palach Square near the Charles Bridge in central Prague after 3 p.m. X stated that the gunman was “eliminated,” and the building was evacuated less than an hour later.
Instructors and students were emailed to hide from cops. You should stay. The email advised securing offices, positioning furniture in front of doors, and turning off lights.
Students shared photographs of closed university doors on social media. I’m stuck in my Prague classroom. The shooter is dead, but we await evacuation. “Praying to survive,” says Weizman. Some frightened people climbed small ledges to escape the gunman.
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According to Vondrášek, the student’s father was found dead at his Hostoun hamlet home west of Prague around 12:40 p.m. Police determined that the anonymous student was scheduled to attend a 2:00 PM university lecture.
The police chief ordered an immediate search of the major arts faculty building. A legal gun owner suspect shot in another building. A Swat squad arrived 12 minutes after the 2:59 p.m. gunshots.
Vondrášek found the shooter’s body on a building ledge about 3:20 p.m. He stated that the suspect had “devastating injuries,” but it was unclear whether he had shot himself or been the victim of a police shooting.
Czech TV reported that Rudolfinum Gallery director Petr Nedoma observed the gunman across the plaza. He adds, “I saw a young person in the gallery who was holding a weapon, like an automatic weapon.”
Pauses were made as he shot toward the Mánes Bridge. He adds, “Then I watched as he fired, raising his hands and tossing the gun onto the pavement, where it lay on the pedestrian crossing.”
Another witness reported that iDnes.cz removed him from the building. Many officers with submachine guns ordered us to run outside. It was horrifying “lady recalls.
Czech President Petr Pavel was outraged by the institution’s events. “I want to sincerely apologize and offer my condolences to the families and loved ones of the people who were killed in the shooting,” she adds.
Svoboda was outraged, and Prime Minister Petr Fiala returned to Prague after “the tragic events at the faculty of philosophy” canceled a trip to the east.
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European leaders sympathized. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the senseless Prague on X massacre today. “We stand beside you in grief.”
Viktor Orbán was appalled by the “heinous shooting at Charles University,” while Mark Rutte sympathized “with the victims and their loved ones.”
A busy thoroughfare separated Jan Palach Square and the university building from Old Town Square, which police blocked.
Emergency services reported “a large number of ambulance units” at the faculty for mild to “very serious” injuries. The incident was alleged to have involved only one person.
The Czech media reported a blast before the university’s top gunman shot. Media outlets showed a black-clad, armed guy on the building’s roof.
Authorities told neighbors “not to stay in the immediate vicinity and not to leave their houses.”
The Czechs have low gun crime. A 42-year-old gunman killed six people in an Ostrava hospital waiting room in December 2019, while a 63-year-old shot seven men and a woman in Uhersky Brod in 2015.
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