By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
PRAGUE (Worthy News) – The Czech Republic plunged into a day of national mourning Saturday after a student killed 14 people and wounded 25 others at his Prague university in the worst mass shooting in the country’s, and Europe’s, recent history.
It seemed that even the heavens cried on Saturday: in pouring rain people placed flowers and candles in the square by the Charles University buildings in Prague after the country’s worst-ever mass shooting.
On Thursday a 24-year-old Czech student named as David Koza shot his father dead before killing more than a dozen people and wounding at least 25 others at his Prague university.
Dramatic footage has emerged of police rushing to stop the gunman. Outside students huddled on a high outdoor ledge to escape the shooting. He then killed himself.
The shooter was also linked to the killing of a young father and his two-year-old daughter, apparently to gruesomely train for his planned massacre several days later.
Police discovered a large arsenal of weapons at the downtown Prague Charles University building where the shooting took place.
STUDENTS MOURNING
Outside on Saturday, a national moment of silence, called for by the government and Churches also remembered the victims.
Among those holding a vigil near Charles university were several students including Jakob Vasák. “Because I am a student of this university you cannot not feel part of this somehow. Even though happy enough to not have any friends who died. However I still feel part of what happened,” he said.
“And I just wanted to be with them at this place which is on one hand sad. At the other hand it is quite visible that a lot of people mourn. And somehow we are trying to overcome this and maybe with those who are dead,” the student added.
“I am here, because I am a part of Charles university. It touches me. Because it is horrible. It touches me and I felt I have to come. I feel with the victims of this attack,” a young woman said.
Questions will be asked about the Czech Republic’s liberal gun legislation, including its constitutional right to bear arms, as nearly a million weapons are owned among a population of just over 10 million.
But for now, this nation, and much of Europe, is united in grief.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
The Trump administration has finalized a sweeping reciprocal trade agreement with Taiwan, confirming a 15 percent U.S. tariff rate on Taiwanese imports while securing broad new market access and purchase commitments for American goods.
Democrats are applauding White House border czar Tom Homan’s Thursday announcement that immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota will end next week.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate tanked the Homeland Security full-year funding bill in a last-ditch vote Thursday, all but guaranteeing a partial government shutdown starting Saturday.
Mourners in a remote Canadian town grappled Thursday with the aftermath of one of the country’s deadliest school shootings in decades, as families, survivors and leaders reacted to the tragedy that left eight victims — most of them children — dead, along with the 18-year-old suspect.
A gunman who opened fire at a school in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai city on Wednesday wounded a teacher and a student before being detained, authorities said, in a rare attack that sent students and staff into panic.
The Republican-led House of Representatives has passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, advancing legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo identification at the polls. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain amid strong Democratic opposition.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that its advanced David’s Sling air and missile defense system has completed a series of complex modernized tests, a development officials say bolsters the country’s defensive posture as tensions with Iran escalate and the United States prepares military options that could include direct strikes.