bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Bloomberg

Associated Press

The Czech Republic declared Saturday a national day of mourning after the worst shooting in the country’s history left at least 15 people dead at Prague’s Charles University.
Czech police said the attacker turned the gun on himself after killing others.
The authorities have identified all victims of the student, 24, who also killed his father before opening fire in the building of the faculty of arts in the city centre.
The Czech Foreign Ministry confirmed that three of those wounded were foreigners – two from United Arab Emirates and one from the Netherlands,
Officials said there was no evidence that the shooter had links to international terrorism.


The carnage in the heart of Prague’s historic centre on Thursday lasted about 20 minutes and left the country of 11 million shaken.
Czech President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked” by the violence and expressed “deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims”.
“We are all shocked by this horrific act,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala said after an emergency meeting of his cabinet. “It’s hard to find words to express condemnation but also pain and grief that the entire society is feeling.”
Church bells will ring across the country at noon on December 23 to honour the victims.
US police arrest boy over fake school shooting as he ‘wanted to go home early’
Leaders across the nation’s political spectrum and around the world offered their condolences.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “deeply shocked” by the attack. The White House said President Joe Biden was “praying for the families who lost loved ones and everyone else who has been affected by the senseless act of violence”.
Several guns and a large amount of ammunition were found in the building hosting the Faculty of Arts, and only a quick police reaction prevented dozens more fatalities, Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said.
The shooter legally owned several weapons, according to Martin Vondrasek, the police chief.
Earlier in the day, authorities found the killer’s father dead in the village of Hostoun west of Prague. They also got information that he had left for the capital intending to kill himself, he said.

Citing a probe into social media, Vondrasek said the gunman was inspired by a “similar case that happened in Russia”, without going into details.
Czech Education Minister Mikulas Bek, who studied at the department, placed a candle at Charles University’s main building in sympathy for the victims.
Czech officials didn’t immediately suggest a motive for the shooting – a rare event in a country that limits access to firearms by requiring gun owners to pass written and practical tests as well as psychological screenings.
‘Terrible tragedy’: Russian teen takes gun to school, kills classmate, herself
“It’s an unimaginable tragedy,” Rakusan said. “The atmosphere of pre-Christmas Czech Republic has been changed, by an act of one insane shooter, into something unrecognisable.”
Students locked themselves in classrooms or ran out of the building with their hands over their heads after shots rang out, Czech television reported.
TV footage showed people trying to hide by standing on the ledge of the building. Some found shelter in the nearby seat of the Prague Philharmonic. Overall, 25 people were wounded, including 10 seriously.


Dozens of police cars and police officers, including some with machine guns, cordoned off an area around the scene, which is in the heart of Prague’s famed centre.
The university department where the shooting occurred is in a limestone building on Jan Palach Square, with a view of the Prague Castle across the Vltava river.
Founded in 1348, the Charles University is one of the world’s oldest. Prague, the Czech capital that was once behind the Iron Curtain, attracts millions of tourists every year.
Though mass gun violence is unusual in the Czech Republic, the nation has been rocked by some instances in recent years.
A 63-year-old man shot seven men and a woman dead in 2015 before killing himself in a restaurant in the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod.
In 2019, a man killed six people in the waiting room of a hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava, with another woman dying days later. The man shot himself dead about three hours after the attack.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


Who is Courtney Burgess, the Diddy witness who calls him ‘Lucifer’? The music manager published a book he claims is based on the diaries of the rapper’s ex, Kim Porter – but her kids aren’t happy

Outcry after Malaysian state issues public caning order under sharia law

UK government to create new spiking criminal offence

Israel says rabbi who went missing in the UAE was killed. The government arrests 3

Crime

Gunman kills 14, wounds 25 at Prague university in Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting

Armed police on a balcony at Charles University in Prague, in response to the shootings. Photo: AFP

A police officer at the scene of the shooting. Photo: AFP

Florida police arrest boy who reported fake school shooting because he ‘wanted to go home early’

Florida police arrested an 11-year-old boy for false reporting a school shooting. File photo: TNS

Japanese academic among 3 killed in University of Nevada shooting

Police stand near the scene of a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on December 7. Photo: AP

Japanese associate professor Naoko Takemaru. Photo: UNLV via AP

Russian school shooting sees 14-year-old girl kill classmate, then herself, and injuring 5 others

Officers stand guard outside Gymnasium Number Five following a shooting, in Bryansk on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Emergency vehicles are seen on the grounds of Gymnasium Number Five following a shooting, in Bryansk on Thursday. Photo: AFP

New York man stabs 4 relatives to death, police shoot him dead

A knife recovered at the crime scene. Photo: TNS

Japan police catch suspect in post office hostage drama, hospital shooting

Police guard the area around a post office where a suspected gunman took people hostage in Warabi city in Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo, on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Police stand near Warabi post office, a few miles from Tokyo, where a suspected gunman barricaded himself in on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Police officers investigate at a hospital near Tokyo where a shooting on Tuesday injured two. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters

Police officers take cover behind cars outside the post office where a suspected gunman took people hostage. Photo: Kyodo, via Reuters

News

World

Europe

Student, 24, opens fire at Prague’s Charles University, killing 14 before killing himself
Government declared December 23 a day of mourning after country’s deadliest mass shooting


The Czech Republic declared Saturday a national day of mourning after the worst shooting in the country’s history left at least 15 people dead at Prague’s Charles University.


European Union

Gunman kills 14, wounds 25 at Prague university in Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting

Student, 24, opens fire at Prague’s Charles University, killing 14 before killing himself Government declared December 23 a day of mourning after country’s deadliest mass shooting

Student, 24, opens fire at Prague’s Charles University, killing 14 before killing himself

Government declared December 23 a day of mourning after country’s deadliest mass shooting