Prague mass shooting: Everything we know about Charles University shooting as 15 confirmed dead

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A gunman has killed 14 people in a university building in Prague on Thursday, police confirmed.

Czech police raced to a shooting at Jan Palach Square in the city centre shortly after 3pm, later adding the gunman’s body had also been found in the area.

Images and videos on social media show crowds of people fleeing the scene. One chilling picture shows eight students perched on a ledge high up on the faculty in an apparent bid to hide from the gunman.

Authorities have confirmed that the suspected killer was a student at the university but withheld his identity when speaking press on Thursday afternoon.

A further 25 people were also injured, 10 of them seriously, Prague‘s Police Chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters.

Here’s everything we know about the shooting and suspected gunman so far:

What has happened?

Czech police said shortly after 3pm that they were responding to a shooting at Charles University’s faculty of arts building in Jan Palach Square, central Prague.

An email sent to staff and students at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University had said a shooter was in one of its buildings and had told staff to “stay put”.

Images and videos on social media show crowds of people running from the square and another appears to show students hiding on a ledge from the gunman – who was also pictured on the balcony of the building.

The square was sealed off with people urged to leave the surrounding streets and stay inside.

What do we know about the suspect?

Czech Police confirmed that the suspected gunman was a student at the university when he opened fire on his classmates.

His motives are not yet known and he has not been linked to any extremist ideology.

Authorities – who discovered a large arsenal of weapons at a downtown Prague Charles University building – were tipped off earlier in the day the man was likely heading to Prague from his town in the Kladno region outside the capital with intentions of taking his own life.

Shortly after that, the shooter’s father was found dead.

Police are working on the theory that the gunman was responsible for the deaths of two people last week in the Klanovicky forest near Prague, officers say.

Czech media reported a 32-year-old man and his two-month-old daughter were killed and police believe the gunman, who has no criminal history, chose his victims at random.

Petr Nedoma, director of the Rudolfinum Gallery at a concert hall across Palach Square, told Czech TV he saw the shooter.

“I saw a young person on the gallery who had some weapon in his hand, like and automatic weapon, and shooting toward the Manes Bridge,” he said.

What have police said?

Police chiefs said the gunman was a student at the faculty of arts at Charles University in Jan Palach Square, but they did not identify him.

They also said the father of the shooter was found dead earlier on Thursday.

“There’s no indication that it has anything to do with international terrorism,” Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said.

“It’s a horrible crime, something the Czech Republic has never experienced,” he said.

Police gave no details about the victims or a possible motive for the shooting at the building located near the Vltava River.

Czech prime minister Petr Fiala has thanked emergency services that responded, saying his thoughts are with the bereaved.

“There is no justification for this horrific act. Like many of you, I feel profound sadness and disgust in the face of this sickening violence,” he wrote on social media.

What other mass shootings has Prague had?

Gun crime is relatively rare in the Czech Republic and this incident is thought to be the worst one in its history.

In December 2019, 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, police said.

In 2015, a man fatally shot eight people and then killed himself at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.