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At least 15 people have been killed by a student at the main university in the Czech capital, Prague, according to police.
The shooter was a 24-year-old student who had planned his attack and had probably been inspired by similar terror acts elsewhere, the head of the Czech police, Martin Vondrášek, told local journalists.
He said that 15 people had been killed and 24 injured, while warning that these figures could change. The unidentified student, who lived in a village on the outskirts of the city, was found dead within the university building. The police chief said the student’s father had also been found dead earlier in the day.
The shooting took place on Thursday at the arts faculty of Charles University in the old town of Prague, not far from the Charles Bridge, one the city’s main tourist attractions. Students were preparing to end their university term on Friday.
Czech media showed police officers standing on the balcony of the faculty while ambulances rushed to the scene. Some students barricaded themselves in their classrooms and others sought refuge on the ledges of the building while the police intervened and cordoned off the area, ordering residents to stay inside.
Local media reported that a blast was heard and that the presumed gunman had probably been on one of the upper floors or possibly also the roof of the faculty building.
Czech interior minister Vít Rakušan said no other gunman had been identified and the attack was not presumed to be linked to international terrorism. He offered no details as to why the student had planned the shooting.
President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked by the events” and offered his condolences to the families and relatives of the victims. Petr Fiala, the country’s prime minister, cancelled all his planned events, citing the “tragic events” in the capital.
Gun crime is rare in the Czech Republic. In 2019 a gunman killed six people in a hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself.
Charles University, founded in 1348, is one of the oldest educational institutions in Europe and the largest in the Czech Republic.
