Prague shooting: Victims identified as Czechs mourn 14 dead in university attack

Czech politicians tend to boast that their country is one of the safest in the world from gun violence. But the worst mass killing in the nation’s history this week — along with other shootings over the last decade — suggest that might not be true.

At the Faculty of Arts department at Charles University, where 14 people were killed and dozens wounded Thursday, the shooter was an excellent student, police said. But the 24-year-old also had a proclivity for firearms, with a license to own eight guns, including two long guns, police said.

Authorities said the lone assailant had no criminal record and therefore did not attract the attention of authorities.

The Czech Republic came to a standstill at noon as people across the country observed a minute of silence as part of a national day of mourning for the victims of the country’s worst mass killing.

Locals expressed shock and fear as they grieved the 14 people killed in the mass shooting on Thursday.

“I am shocked. I don’t feel very safe as much as before in a public place, especially in public transportation,” a local told NBC News.

National flags on public buildings were at half-staff and people across the Czech Republic are set to observe a minute of silence as the country holds a day of national mourning on Saturday to honor the victims of the worst mass killing in Czech history.

The shooting inside a university building at the heart of the Czech capital on Thursday left 14 dead and dozens injured.

Police and prosecutors said they have evidence the 24-year-old shooter also killed his father earlier in the day and a man and a baby in Prague last week.

The gunman who killed 14 people during a rampage at a university in Prague took his own life after a rooftop shootout, police have revealed.

David Kozak, 24, committed suicide by shooting himself as armed police cornered him on the balcony of the Charles University’s Faculty of Arts building after killing more than a dozen people and injuring 25 more with an assault rifle. Lenka Hlavkova, the head of the Institute of Musicology at the university’s Faculty of Arts, is the first of his victims to be named, a mother who leaves behind a young family with two sons.

As Prague mourns its dead and tries to recover from the deadliest mass shooting in the Czech Republic’s history, authorities shared how the tragic events unfolded on Thursday.

The first victim of a mass shooting in central Prague has been named, with 14 people killed by a gunman who opened fire at the prestigious Charles University, Holly Evans reports.

Among those killed was Lenka Hlavkova, the head of the Institute of Musicology at the university’s Faculty of Arts, gunned down on Thursday afternoon by student David Kozak.

“We express our deepest condolences to all the bereaved, especially to the family,” a faculty spokesperson said. “It’s extremely cruel news for all of us. Let’s stay supporting each other,” they said.

The popular tourist destination of Prague has been left reeling after a lone gunman opened fire on students at a top university, in what has become the country’s worst mass shooting, Athena Stavrou reports.

Social media videos captured the panic that broke out on Thursday afternoon at Charles University in the city centre, with tourists taking cover and a group of desperate students clinging to a building ledge in a bid to save their lives.

Czech police raced to the scene of the shooting at Jan Palach Square shortly after 3pm, and were confronted with the horrifying reality that 13 people had been killed, with the gunman taking his own life shortly afterwards.