Czech police and emergency services said a shooter had been “eliminated” after killing at least 15 people and wounding “dozens” more at a university in the capital, Prague, on Thursday.
Images on social media showed students barricaded in classrooms and emergency vehicles swarming a square in Prague’s old town. Police said on X, formerly Twitter, that the shooter was dead, and the school, Charles University, was still being evacuated.
Prague’s emergency response service said on X that around 25 people were injured, 11 of them seriously. The shooter was a student at the university, police said at a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
“The on-site intervention is still ongoing. At this moment we can confirm more than 15 dead and dozens injured,” Czech police said Thursday night on X, hours after the shooting was first reported. “We have no information at this time that the perpetrator is connected to any terrorist organization.”
Charles University is a large university with 59,000 students, 20 percent of whom are international students, according to the college’s website. Its buildings are spread throughout the city rather than being concentrated in a central campus. The university’s Faculty of Arts is next to the square where the shooting took place.
Czech Republic has more permissive gun laws than most countries in Europe, even allowing concealed carry with a permit. Still, the country requires citizens to take strict tests before being able to obtain weapons. Mass killings are rare but not unheard of. In 2019, a gunman killed six people at a Czech hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava before killing himself. In 2015, a gunman shot eight people and himself in the town of Uhersky Brod.
Thursday’s killings are the worst in the country since it split from Slovakia in 1992, according to AFP.
Czech President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked” by Thursday’s shootings.
“I would like to express my deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims claimed by the shooting,” Pavel posted on X.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “shocked by the senseless violence of the shooting that claimed several lives today.”
“I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the Czech people as a whole,” she said on X.
Images on social media showed students barricaded in classrooms and emergency vehicles swarming a square in Prague’s old town. Police said on X, formerly Twitter, that the shooter was dead, and the school, Charles University, was still being evacuated.
Prague’s emergency response service said on X that around 25 people were injured, 11 of them seriously. The shooter was a student at the university, police said at a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
“The on-site intervention is still ongoing. At this moment we can confirm more than 15 dead and dozens injured,” Czech police said Thursday night on X, hours after the shooting was first reported. “We have no information at this time that the perpetrator is connected to any terrorist organization.”
Charles University is a large university with 59,000 students, 20 percent of whom are international students, according to the college’s website. Its buildings are spread throughout the city rather than being concentrated in a central campus. The university’s Faculty of Arts is next to the square where the shooting took place.
Czech Republic has more permissive gun laws than most countries in Europe, even allowing concealed carry with a permit. Still, the country requires citizens to take strict tests before being able to obtain weapons. Mass killings are rare but not unheard of. In 2019, a gunman killed six people at a Czech hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava before killing himself. In 2015, a gunman shot eight people and himself in the town of Uhersky Brod.
Thursday’s killings are the worst in the country since it split from Slovakia in 1992, according to AFP.
Czech President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked” by Thursday’s shootings.
“I would like to express my deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims claimed by the shooting,” Pavel posted on X.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “shocked by the senseless violence of the shooting that claimed several lives today.”
“I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the Czech people as a whole,” she said on X.
