Motive sought for mass shooting at Prague university that left 13 and gunman dead

Czech authorities sought a motive Friday in a pupil’s gun assault that killed 13 people at a Prague university, the place tearful mourners have left a sea of candles to grieve for the victims.

The gunfire Thursday on the Charles College’s College of Arts sparked frantic scenes of scholars operating from the assault that was the Czech Republic’s worst capturing in a long time.

A makeshift memorial of a whole bunch of candles flickered exterior the college on Friday as police pursued the investigation on the campus in Prague’s historic middle.

The gunman, a 24-year-old pupil, killed himself after the assault after capturing lifeless 13 folks and wounding 25 others.

“We all know all 14 lifeless and their id. It is 13 victims of the mad gunman and the gunman himself,” Inside Minister Vit Rakusan advised public broadcaster Czech TV, revising down a earlier toll of 14 victims.

A State Division spokesperson advised CBS Information Thursday night that it was “not conscious of any U.S. residents injured or killed presently” within the assault.

Rakusan added that three of the wounded had been foreigners. 

The Dutch international ministry mentioned one was a Dutch nationwide. Rakusan mentioned two had been from Saudi Arabia, The Related Press experiences.

All of the victims had been killed contained in the constructing and a minimum of some had been the gunman’s fellow college students, authorities mentioned.

Rakusan had mentioned earlier that there was no hyperlink between the capturing and “worldwide terrorism” and that the scholar acted on his personal.

Though police mentioned there was not any imminent risk, they had been nonetheless guarding chosen websites together with colleges on Friday as a safety measure and “a sign we’re right here.”

The federal government has declared a nationwide day of mourning on Saturday, with flags on official buildings to be flown at half-staff and folks requested to look at a minute’s silence at midday.

The gunman, beforehand unknown to police, had a “large arsenal of weapons and ammunition,” Police Chief Martin Vondrasek mentioned after the killings on Thursday.

Police had began a seek for the scholar even earlier than the mass capturing, after his father was discovered lifeless within the village of Hostoun, west of Prague.

The gunman “left for Prague saying he wished to kill himself,” Vondrasek mentioned, declining to substantiate whether or not the gunman had killed his father.

Police had began the search at a College of Arts constructing the place the gunman was anticipated to point out up for a lecture, however he went as a substitute to the college’s predominant constructing close by.

After police despatched a fast response unit to the scene, the gunman was lifeless 20 minutes later.

Citing an inquiry into the scholar’s social media actions, Vondrasek mentioned the gunman was impressed by a “comparable case that occurred in Russia,” with out offering additional particulars.

Vondrasek mentioned police believed the identical gunman had additionally killed a younger man and his two-month-old daughter throughout a stroll in a forest on the jap outskirts of Prague on December 15.

The investigation into these murders, which had shocked Prague, had stalled till proof present in Hostoun linked the gunman with the crime.

The capturing at Charles College, which sits close to main vacationer websites just like the 14th-century Charles Bridge, was the deadliest for the reason that Czech Republic emerged as an unbiased state in 1993.

“There isn’t a justification for this horrendous act,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala mentioned.

President Biden despatched his condolences, slamming the “mindless” capturing.

“My coronary heart is with those that misplaced their lives in right now’s mindless capturing in Prague, these injured, and the Czech folks,” he wrote on X, previously referred to as Twitter. “Our authorities are in contact with Czech regulation enforcement, and we stand prepared to supply further help if wanted.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been amongst these additionally providing condolences.

Although mass gun violence is uncommon within the Czech Republic, the nation has been rocked by some cases lately.

A 63-year-old man shot seven males and a girl lifeless in 2015 earlier than killing himself in a restaurant within the southeastern city of Uhersky Brod.

In 2019, a person killed six folks within the ready room of a hospital within the jap metropolis of Ostrava, with one other girl dying days later. The person shot himself lifeless about three hours after the assault.