By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
PRAGUE (Worthy News) – At least 15 people were killed and about 30 others injured in a shooting on Thursday at Charles University in central Prague, Czech police and other sources said.
Prague’s police chief said the armed man was a student at the university where the mass shooting occurred. Police and the Czech Republic’s interior ministry also said the suspect was dead.
The Prague region’s governor in the Czech Republic, Bohuslav Svoboda, said the shooter fell from the roof of the university’s Faculty of Arts building after opening fire on Jan Palach Square, an area of manicured lawns adjacent to the Vltava River that cuts through the Czech capital.
Police said the shooter had been “eliminated,” making him the 16th person who died in the shooting spree. He wasn’t immediately identified publicly.
His motives were not immediately clear, but it comes as Europe is on edge for terror attacks as tensions spread over the Israel-Hamas war
Officers sealed off Jan Palach Square and evacuated the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooting took place, witnesses said. Security forces were seen searching for possible explosives.
It follows horrific hours for students and staff. An email to staff at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University sent out on Thursday afternoon said a shooter was in one of its buildings and told staff to “stay put.”
“Don’t go anywhere if you’re in the offices; lock them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights,” the message read.
CROWDS FLEEING
Crowds of people fled the scene as the shooting began, video clips show.
Footage purportedly showed chairs were used to barricade doors inside the Faculty of Arts of Charles University building, and other footage showed students huddled on a high outdoor ledge to escape the shooting.
Witnesses said the students were hiding as the shooter continued to search for more targets. “Absolutely horrifying scenes,” wrote Mahyar Tousi beneath a picture on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Pavel Nedoma, the director of Rudolfinum Gallery, which is also located in the square, told Czech public television he saw from a window a person who was shooting from a gun toward the nearby Manes bridge across the Vltava River.
She told Czech broadcaster CT24: “Upstairs on the walkway of the Faculty of Arts, I saw a man standing with a gun in his hand and shooting towards the Mánes bridge with certain delays.”
Amid the turmoil, a newlywed British couple spoke about the moment a police officer ordered them to stay down during a mass shooting in central Prague.
Tom Leese, 34, a video producer, and his wife Rachael, 31, an account director, who are on honeymoon in the country, were having a drink in the Slivovitz Museum, close to where the shooting happened.
POLICEMAN SHOUTING
Tom Leese said: “A policeman came in and started shouting loudly in what I assume was Czech. I asked for it in English, and he said there was an active shooter and to stay inside and stay down.”
He added, “The staff were very calm, turned all the lights off very quickly, and urged us to stay calm. The restaurant was relatively quiet.”
“The policeman left urgently, and we stood in the restaurant’s corner.”
The couple, from Merstham in Surrey, were kept in the museum for over an hour, hearing sirens outside, Britain’s The Independent online newspaper reported.
Leese added: “Rachael is still in shock.
“We were meant to be having dinner at the restaurant right by the building tonight and were going to pop in for a drink earlier on, but we crossed the bridge instead.
“With everyone else being so calm, it didn’t seem real to me. We’ve been in touch with all of our families to let them know that we’re safe.”
However, “We obviously can’t wait to get home now,” he explained. It was believed to be the deadliest university shooting on record in a nation where, unlike the United States, shootings are rare.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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