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A earlier model of this story mentioned Charles College had 59,000 college students. It has round 49,000 college students.
A gunman who later died killed 14 folks and injured dozens extra at a college in Prague on Dec. 21, in line with Czech police. (Video: Reuters)
BRUSSELS — Czech police mentioned a gunman killed 14 folks within the capital, Prague, on Thursday, one of many worst mass killings in Europe in almost a decade.
The 24-year-old shooter is useless, although it wasn’t clear whether or not he killed himself or if police shot him, Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek mentioned at a information convention, in line with the Related Press. Police didn’t determine him however mentioned he acted alone.
Photographs on social media confirmed college students barricaded in lecture rooms, folks working by means of the streets and emergency automobiles and armed police swarming a sq. in Prague’s historic previous city simply yards from the Vltava River that winds by means of the medieval metropolis.
Police revised their unique tally of “greater than 15” useless to 14 at a information convention late Thursday.
Round 25 folks have been injured, 11 of them severely, Prague’s emergency response service mentioned on X, previously Twitter. The shooter was a scholar on the college, and police assume he killed his father earlier within the day in a city close to Prague, Vondrasek mentioned. After looking his house, in addition they assume he could be linked to a killing final week of a person and his 2-month-old daughter.
“We have now no data right now that the perpetrator is linked to any terrorist group,” police mentioned Thursday evening on X. Police had accomplished a sweep for explosives and have been figuring out victims. Embassies could be contacted if foreigners have been among the many useless, police mentioned. A consultant for the U.S. Embassy in Prague declined to remark.
The mass killing is likely one of the worst in Europe since 130 folks have been killed within the Bataclan terrorist assault in Paris in 2015, which the Islamic State later claimed accountability for. On Thursday, Prague police mentioned a number of weapons have been discovered on the web site. They didn’t determine the shooter however mentioned he had obtained the weapons legally.
The Czech Republic has extra permissive gun legal guidelines than most international locations in Europe, even permitting hid carry with a allow. Nonetheless, the nation requires residents to take strict exams earlier than having the ability to get hold of weapons. Mass killings are uncommon however not unprecedented. In 2019, a gunman killed six folks and himself at a Czech hospital within the jap metropolis of Ostrava. In 2015, a gunman shot eight folks and himself within the city of Uhersky Brod. Thursday’s killings are the worst within the nation since Czechoslovakia cut up up into Czech Republic and Slovakia on the finish of 1992, in line with Agence France-Presse.
Leaders from across the continent and the world expressed shock and sorrow Thursday.
“The president and the primary woman are praying for the households who misplaced family members and everybody else who has been affected by this mindless act of violence,” White Home spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned at a information briefing. “Federal authorities are in contact with Czech authorities as they examine this incident.”
Charles College, based in 1348 and named for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, is the biggest and most prestigious college within the Czech Republic. Twenty p.c of its greater than 49,000 college students come from overseas, together with many from america. Its buildings are unfold all through the town slightly than being concentrated in a central campus. The college’s College of Arts is subsequent to the sq. the place the capturing befell.
“We all the time thought that this was a factor that didn’t concern us. Now it seems that, sadly, our world can also be altering and the issue of the person shooter is rising right here as properly,” Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda advised Czech Tv, in line with Reuters.
Czech President Petr Pavel mentioned he was “shocked” by Thursday’s shootings.
“I wish to specific my deep remorse and honest condolences to the households and kin of the victims claimed by the capturing,” Pavel posted on X.