At Least 10 Dead, Several More Injured in Prague University Shooting

At least ten people were shot dead by a gunman from a balcony on the faculty of arts at the University of Prague on Thursday, with the gunman reported by local media to have fallen from the roof.

A mass shooter has been “eliminated” and “here are several dead and dozens of injured” around the faculty of arts building at the University of Prague, Czech police said on Thursday. Czech newspaper Lidové Noviny reports the mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda told their publication that the presumed shooter had fallen from the building and was now dead, and images circulated on social media holding a long arm with scope at the balcony rail near the roof of the building.

At present it is claimed ten victims plus the shooter himself are dead, for a total of 11 fatalities. A further nine are reported injured. Witnesses talking to the paper stated: “We are on the third floor, where he shot afterwards. We hid tight. Then he shot in the corridor near the classroom and someone shouted there”. Another told how they had seen students attempt to escape the shooter by scaling the outside of the building, clinging onto the stone architrave.

The Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said of the shooting that members of the public should avoid the area and should not “go to the place to look”. Rakušan continued: “I don’t want to comment on the shooter’s motivation at the moment, we are still mapping the situation. I appreciate the professional intervention of all components. The police were on the scene within minutes.”

The minister also spoke of another attack which took place in Klánovice, a leafy suburb of Prague last week in which a 32-year-old man and a two-month-old girl — still strapped into her stroller — were shot dead. “At the moment, there is no way to confirm the connection with the investigated case in Klánovice”, Rakušan said. A manhunt for a possible suspect had been announced by Bohemian police today.

This story is developing and more follows