Police haven’t launched the identities of the victims. Charles University’s Institute of Music Sciences confirmed in a Facebook submit that its head, Lenka Hlávková, was among the many lifeless.
Citing unconfirmed info from social media, Czech police head Martin Vondrášek stated the gunman was impressed by a “similar case that happened in Russia.” Earlier this month, a Russian teen named Alina Afanaskina shot and killed a fellow student earlier than taking pictures herself within the metropolis of Bryansk. Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan stated investigators don’t suspect a link to any extremist ideology or teams, or worldwide terrorism.
The taking pictures is the fourth main mass-killing by a single gunman this 12 months in Europe, the place such assaults are thought-about surprising and uncommon. In May, two separate assaults in Serbia inside the span of per week shocked the nation and led the president to pledge gun reforms and a “total disarmament” of the nation. In March, a gunman killed six individuals at a Jehovah’s Witness corridor in Hamburg.
“We always thought that this was a thing that did not concern us. Now it turns out that, unfortunately, our world is also changing and the problem of the individual shooter is emerging here as well,” Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda stated on Czech Television, based on Reuters.
Authorities obtained a tip-off earlier on Thursday that the suspect, who had no legal file, had left for Prague from his city within the close by Kladno area “saying he wanted to kill himself.” His father was discovered lifeless quickly after.
Following the tip, police searched a college of arts constructing the place the gunman was anticipated to indicate up for a lecture. Instead, he went to the college’s most important constructing close by the place photographs have been fired at round 3 p.m. native time on Thursday. The gunman had a “huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition,” police stated.
Videos posted by witnesses on social media confirmed locals and vacationers working from the realm. The constructing the place the taking pictures passed off is in Jan Palach Square, a busy vacationer space in Prague’s Old Town, named after a Czech student who died of self-immolation protesting Soviet occupation in 1968. While college students and college employees barricaded themselves into rooms, others have been seen fleeing by means of home windows earlier than precariously sheltering on the sides of the constructing.
Video launched by Czech police Friday reveals chaotic scenes of individuals and automobiles fleeing the sq. as police arrive and start getting into the constructing armed with assault rifles. The video reveals police breaking open doorways and clearing school rooms, with college students mendacity on the ground with their palms on their heads.
In one classroom, pairs of police officers may be seen treating wounded individuals, handing one another bandages and tourniquets. The wounded persons are blurred out within the video. Another clip reveals police carrying an individual throughout the sq. on a stretcher. The individual may be heard whimpering in ache.
In a picture evocative of faculty taking pictures scenes within the U.S., a big group of scholars is escorted across the exterior of a constructing with their palms within the air. Police inform individuals in mass-shootings to take action as they work to determine who’s the shooter and who isn’t.
Petr Matejcek, a police official, stated the gunman shot himself on a balcony of the college, the Associated Press reported. The movies launched by police present a blurred-out physique mendacity on a balcony.
Late Thursday police stated they consider the gunman additionally killed a younger man and his 2-month-old daughter in a stroller in a forest on the outskirts of Prague on Dec. 15, a case that has gripped the nation over the past week.
Early Friday, as individuals lit candles at an impromptu vigil, the federal government declared a nationwide day of mourning on Dec. 23. Flags on official buildings shall be flown at half-staff and a minute’s silence shall be noticed at midday.
Police stepped up safety at faculties and different “soft targets” Friday as a safety measure, whereas Charles University canceled all lectures and occasions.
The taking pictures led to an outpouring of condolences from world leaders. “The president and the first lady are praying for the families who lost loved ones and everyone else who has been affected by this senseless act of violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters. “Federal authorities are in touch with Czech authorities as they investigate this incident.”
Despite having extra permissive gun legal guidelines than most of its European neighbors — even permitting hid carry with a allow — the Czech Republic requires residents to take strict checks earlier than having the ability to get hold of weapons.
Mass killings are uncommon however have occurred earlier than. In 2019, a gunman killed six individuals at a Czech hospital within the metropolis of Ostrava earlier than turning the gun on himself. Four years earlier, a gunman shot eight individuals and himself within the city of Uherský Brod.
De Vynck reported from Brussels.
