At least fifteen people have been shot dead and dozens have been injured - nine of them seriously - this Thursday in the center of Prague by bursts of gunfire from an attacker who also died shortly after. The shooting occurred around three in the afternoon in the area of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, near Jan Palach Square, in the center of the capital.
It is not yet clear how the attacker's death occurred. “The shooter has been eliminated! Currently, the entire building is being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of injured in the place,” the police reported on the social network X (formerly Twitter). Czech police have identified him as Daniel K., 24, a Japanese student at the university, who hours before the attack in the capital killed his father in Hostoun, a town in the Central Bohemian region.
Equipped with a long weapon with a telescopic sight, the aggressor continued shooting after law enforcement arrived at the scene. During the event, the university center sent an email to the staff and students of the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University instructing them to lock the doors. “Stay still, don't go anywhere, if you are in the offices, close them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights,” the message stated.
A post on the social network Authorities said the entire plaza and surrounding areas were closed. Police have urged citizens to stay away from the site and stay indoors.
On social networks, students of the aforementioned faculty have shared information about people who remained sheltered in the classrooms or in the university library, before the authorities began to evacuate the educational center. “According to preliminary information, the shooter should be dead, there are dead and wounded at the scene, I will not speculate now on the final number,” Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told Czech television.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala has canceled his trip to the east of the country to return to Prague, as reported on the X network. Some media have cited witnesses who said they heard an explosion. The agents cordoned off the entire area and cut off traffic and public transportation in its surroundings.
Gun crimes are relatively rare in the Czech Republic. In 2019, a 42-year-old man killed six people in the waiting room of a hospital in Ostrava before fleeing and committing suicide. In 2015, a man shot dead eight people and then committed suicide in a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.
