The shooting that killed at least fifteen people and injured another 24 in the heart of Prague has shocked Czech society, where this type of crime is very unusual until now.
Czech authorities see no indication that the perpetrator of the massacre was linked to terrorist organizations, said the Czech Interior Ministry, Vit Rakusan.
How the events happened
Panic spread at the Charles University of Prague and its tourist surroundings when David K., a 24-year-old student, began to shoot indiscriminately at his classmates at the Faculty of Philosophy around 2:30 p.m. GMT.
Hearing screams and the sound of gunshots, many students locked themselves in the classrooms and filmed the scenes with their mobile phones that they shared through social networks.
In them you can see young people lying on the ground, away from the windows, while other images show students crouching on ledges located at the top of the façade of the university building, located in the central Jan Palach Square.
Televisions also showed how many people ran away from the place across the emblematic Charles Bridge.
The law enforcement agencies, who went to the scene, cordoned off the area and cut off traffic and urban transportation, and reported about an hour later the death of the attacker, David K.
He was a 24-year-old student who committed suicide in a hallway. the Faculty when they found themselves pursued by the police there, reported the Chief of Police, Martin Vondrácek, in an appearance before the press.
The first investigations suggest that he acted alone and that this attack, the largest in the history of the Czech Republic, does not have a terrorist background.
According to the investigative portal Seznam Zpravy, the man lived in Kladno, an industrial town twenty kilometers west of Prague, where he is suspected of murdering his father before committing the multiple homicide at the university.
“A quiet and introverted boy. He didn’t have much fun with us,” a classmate of the young man, who had successfully completed his high school degree in History, told the aforementioned portal.
He wrote in Cyrillic on the social network Telegram, where he created a profile on December 9 and from where he made threats and even said that he would commit suicide, something that the police have confirmed.
In that network the suspect wrote that he had been inspired by Alin Afanashikn, a young man from a high school in Bryansk (Russia), suspected of having committed an attack on the 7th in which two people died.
Apparently, he owned several weapons. Some images show a long gun with a telescopic sight as the crime weapon.
At 5:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. GMT), the building had been completely evacuated and all the injured were transferred to different hospitals in the capital.
The prime minister, the conservative Petr Fiala, interrupted a working visit to Olomouc (in the east of the country) and returned to Prague for an emergency meeting of his cabinet, after which he plans to appear before the press.
Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said in statements to public television that the situation is under control and there is no indication that there is a second shooter.
The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, expressed his deep regret and deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting through his X social network account.
The president’s office reported that Pavel will urgently return from an official trip to France, after which he will meet with state security forces.
Charles University, one of the oldest in Europe, is located very close to Jan-Palach Square, one of the most touristic areas in the center of Prague.
By TTU
