A shooter killed at least 14 people and wounded 25 others at a university in\u00a0Prague\u00a0on Thursday in the deadliest mass shooting the Czech Republic has seen in decades. <\/p>\n
Authorities believe the gunman, a 24-year-old man, died by suicide, Czech Police Chief Martin Vondr\u00e1\u0161ek said Thursday evening, but added it had not yet been confirmed. The gunman, who police said was a student of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, has not been formally identified because of the severity of his injuries, the chief said. Police have not named him. <\/p>\n
Authorities are still investigating a motive in the rampage, which took place at the Faculty of Arts building of Charles University, in the center of the capital city. <\/strong>The area is popular with tourists and close to major attractions, just across the Vltava River from Prague Castle. <\/p>\n The shooter traveled to Prague from his hometown village of Hostou\u0148, the police chief said. <\/strong> <\/p>\n As the violence broke out, some students locked themselves in classrooms to avoid the gunfire, police said. A picture shared on social media showed several people hiding on an outside ledge high up in a building. <\/p>\n The university was holding classes on Thursday and was due to go on Christmas break on December 23, according to a schedule on the university\u2019s website. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter I made the barricade and locked the door, I hid under the desk and I was preparing myself for anything that could happen,\u201d Weizman said. \u201cI did not know if (the shooter) was going to come through the door or from the window.\u201d <\/p>\n In a later news conference Thursday night, Vondr\u00e1\u0161ek revised the number of people killed to 14, after previously saying 15 people had died. Of the 25 people injured, 10 were in serious condition, the police chief said. <\/p>\n The next update from authorities is expected Friday morning. <\/p>\n The police chief said authorities had information about the shooter before the university killings, saying police received a tip he was traveling to Prague with the intention to take his own life. <\/p>\n Shortly afterward, they received information a deceased man was found in Hostou\u0148, a town around 13 miles (21 km) west of Prague. The man is believed to be the shooter\u2019s <\/strong>father. <\/p>\n Vondr\u00e1\u0161ek said the police were aware the shooter had a lecture at 2 p.m. CET and evacuated the building where the lecture was meant to take place. But authorities <\/strong>then received a call about a shooting in a different building, according to the police chief. <\/p>\n Czech authorities are also working on a theory the gunman <\/strong>is connected to a double homicide in Klanovice, a Prague suburb, last week, Vondr\u00e1\u0161ek said. Authorities are still conducting a thorough investigation in that case, the chief added. <\/p>\n The shooter had a gun permit and owned several weapons, Vondr\u00e1\u0161ek said. <\/p>\n The Czech Republic will observe a day of mourning Saturday for those killed, country officials announced at a joint news conference late Thursday. <\/p>\n \u201cI want to express my deep sadness and also helpless anger over the loss of so many young lives,\u201d Czech President Petr Pavel said. <\/p>\n The massacre is \u201cthe most tragic incident in the history of the Czech Republic,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Flags will be flown at half-staff during the day of mourning and a minute of silence will be held nationwide at noon Saturday. Bells across the country will also toll for the victims of the attack, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said. <\/p>\n Earlier, Fiala said authorities believe the shooting was a lone incident and there was no remaining danger. Interior Minister V\u00edt Raku\u0161an said the shooting was not an act of terrorism. <\/p>\n Charles University said it tightened its security measures \u201cwith immediate effect\u201d and canceled events at the university on Thursday and Friday. In a statement posted on X, it also \u201ccalled for an adequate and sensitive approach to [Friday\u2019s] possible exams or credit examinations.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe now ask everyone to try to remain calm and composed, and we again extend our condolences to all those whose hearts have been broken by the loss of loved ones,\u201d the university said. <\/p>\n The Czech Republic has relatively liberal gun laws compared to the rest of the European Union, but gun attacks are rare. To obtain a gun legally, a person needs an official firearm license, which requires a medical examination, a weapon proficiency exam and no previous criminal record. <\/p>\n According to official police statistics, more than 300,000 people have a legal permit to own a gun. As of 2022, almost 1 million legally owned weapons were officially registered in the Czech Republic. <\/p>\n In December 2019, a 42-year-old man killed six people at a hospital waiting room in Ostrava in the east of the country before shooting himself. <\/p>\n And in 2015 a man killed eight people in a shooting at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod before killing himself. <\/p>\n\n A shooter killed at least 14 people and wounded 25 others at a university in\u00a0Prague\u00a0on Thursday in the deadliest mass shooting the Czech Republic has seen in decades. Authorities believe the gunman, a 24-year-old man, died by suicide, Czech Police Chief Martin Vondr\u00e1\u0161ek said Thursday evening, but added it had not yet been confirmed. The <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Shooter may be linked to other killings<\/h2>\n
Country declares day of mourning<\/h2>\n