PRAGUE – In a shocking and tragic incident, a gunman unleashed terror at Charles University‘s faculty of arts building in Jan Palach Square on Thursday, resulting in the death of at least 15 people and leaving 24 others wounded. The assailant, identified as a student at the university, was later “eliminated” by law enforcement, marking the country’s deadliest mass shooting in history.
Czech police swiftly responded to the harrowing event shortly after 3 p.m. (1400 GMT). The shooter’s father, also discovered dead earlier on Thursday, added a somber layer to the unfolding tragedy.
FLASH:
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) December 21, 2023
A student at Charles University in Prague opened fire inside a university building. Police say at least 15 were killed in the mass shooting.
This just confirms Hanke’s School Boy’s Theory of History: It’s just one damn thing after another.pic.twitter.com/4PuaUu7X2j
“We always thought that this was a thing that did not concern us. Now it turns out that, unfortunately, our world is also changing and the problem of the individual shooter is emerging here as well,” expressed a solemn Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda in an interview with Czech Television.
Eyewitness Petr Nedoma, the director of the Rudolfinum Gallery at a concert hall across Palach Square, provided a chilling account of the incident.
“I saw a young person on the gallery who had some weapon in his hand, like an automatic weapon, and shooting toward the Manes Bridge. Repeatedly, with some interruptions, then I saw as he shot, put hands up and threw the weapon down on the street; it lay there on the pedestrian crossing,” Nedoma recounted to Czech TV.
The immediate aftermath saw police sealing off the square and the surrounding area, located in a bustling part of town frequented by tourists heading to Old Town Square. Live broadcasts on Czech TV captured the scene with ambulances and police cars lining up alongside the building, their flashing lights piercing the evening gloom accompanied by the haunting wail of sirens.
A witness, speaking to news website iDnes.cz, described the sudden onset of chaos: “I got off at the tram stop by the school, and suddenly I heard shooting.”
An email sent to staff and students urged caution and safety measures, advising individuals to stay put, lock doors, barricade themselves if in offices, and turn off lights until further notice.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala promptly canceled his trip to the east of the country, en route to Prague, expressing his deep concern for the unfolding tragedy.
Gun violence is a rare occurrence in the Czech Republic, with the nation grappling to comprehend this shocking event. The last major incident occurred in December 2019 when a 42-year-old gunman killed six people at a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself, according to police reports. In 2015, another incident unfolded as a man fatally shot eight people before taking his own life at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.
As the nation mourns and investigators work to understand the motives behind this heinous act, the incident serves as a stark reminder that even in places where such tragedies seem unlikely, the specter of individual violence can cast a long and devastating shadow over communities.
Feature Image Source: Getty Images
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