A tragic incident unfolded at a university in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, on Thursday, when a student initiated a deadly shooting spree. The incident resulted in the death of 15 individuals, while 25 others sustained injuries. The shooting took place at the Faculty of Arts building of Charles University, located near the city’s Old Town, a popular tourist spot.
The shooter, a 24-year-old student named David Kozák, according to local media reports, also lost his life in what authorities believe was a suicide. The police have yet to confirm the identity of the suspect. The motive behind the country’s deadliest mass shooting remains unclear, but the Czech Interior Minister, Vit Rakusan, has ruled out any connections to extremist ideologies or groups.
Investigations have revealed that the shooter, a philosophy student at Charles University, had also allegedly killed his father earlier that day in his hometown of Hostoun, west of Prague. Police Chief Martin Vondrasek described the shooter as an excellent student with no criminal record.
Authorities discovered a large cache of weapons at the university building where the shooting occurred. They also found disturbing posts on a Telegram account believed to belong to Kozák, expressing his hatred for the world and his desire to inflict as much pain as possible.
In addition to the university shooting, Kozák is suspected of killing a man and his two-month-old daughter, whose bodies were found in a forest outside Prague last week. While his death is believed to be a suicide, investigations are ongoing to determine if he was killed by police return fire.
The incident has sent shockwaves through the city, with Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda expressing his dismay at the emergence of such violence in the Czech Republic. Petr Nedoma, the director of a gallery near the university, recounted his brief encounter with the shooter, describing the chilling scene of the shooter firing an automatic weapon before discarding it on the street.
As the incident unfolded, social media was flooded with images and videos of panicked students and onlookers trying to escape the scene. One journalist, Jakob Weizman, shared his experience of being trapped in a classroom, praying for his safety.
The incident prompted Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala to cancel his scheduled events and head to Prague. The tragic event has left the city and the country in a state of shock and mourning.