PRAGUE — The Czech authorities has declared December 23 a nationwide day of mourning for 14 folks killed by a 24-year-old pupil who reportedly posted disturbing messages on-line earlier than the assault and might need been impressed by a college taking pictures in Russia two weeks in the past.
The taking pictures at Charles College in central Prague additionally wounded 25 folks, together with 10 critically. It was the nation’s worst mass taking pictures and one of many worst on document in Europe.
”The Czech Republic has by no means skilled such an act,” Czech Inside Minister Vit Rakusan mentioned shortly after the taking pictures on December 21, including that there was no indication that the taking pictures had any reference to worldwide terrorism.
Police chief Martin Vondrasek mentioned shooter, who has not been formally recognized, almost certainly died by suicide. It was not clear whether or not his dying was included within the dying toll of 14.
”I used to be on the scene of a horrific crime a second in the past, I noticed an enormous arsenal of weapons and ammunition within the college constructing,” the police chief mentioned. ”If it weren’t for the fast intervention of the police, there would have been many instances extra victims.”
Vondrasek mentioned police imagine the shooter killed his father in his hometown of Hostoun west of Prague earlier within the day, and that he had additionally been planning to kill himself.
He added that police are investigating whether or not the shooter, a authorized gun proprietor, is identical assailant who killed a 32-year-old man and his 2-month-old daughter on December 15 in a park in Prague.
Czech media reported that earlier than the taking pictures on the college the shooter posted messages on Telegram citing a college taking pictures within the Russian metropolis of Bryansk on December 7 through which a 14-year-old Russian woman opened fireplace with a shotgun on her classmates, killing a 13-year-old woman and wounding a number of others earlier than turning the gun on herself and committing suicide.
The reviews say that police are actually wanting into his social media posts, together with one other one through which he mentioned he hated the world and wished to depart as a lot ache in it as doable.
”Everybody simply hated me, hates me and can hate me. I do not care as a result of it is mutual,” he mentioned in a publish on Telegram, in line with Czech media.
Mass shootings are uncommon in Europe, however there have been a minimum of three others this yr. A gunman in March within the German metropolis of Hamburg shot useless six folks and wounded eight earlier than killing himself.
The opposite two occurred in Serbia in a single week in Could. A 13-year-old boy gunned down eight fellow college students and a safety guard in a Belgrade college. Two days later, a gunman killed eight folks and wounded 14 others in a village close to the Serbian capital.
Reactions to the Prague taking pictures got here from different European capitals and from the top of RFE/RL, whose headquarters is in Prague about 6 kilometers from Charles College.
”RFE/RL joins with our group in Prague in expressing solidarity with all affected by right now’s stunning occasions at Charles College,” appearing President Jeffrey Gedmin mentioned in a press release.
Czech President Petr Pavel mentioned he was “shocked” by what occurred and supplied his condolences to the kinfolk of the victims, as did leaders of Germany, France, Slovakia, the European Union, and Israel.
The White Home mentioned the USA is able to help the Czech Republic as wanted.
”Federal authorities are in contact with Czech authorities as they examine this incident, and we stand prepared to offer further help as wanted,” White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy additionally reacted with shock and unhappiness.
”I categorical my honest condolences to the households of the victims and need the injured a speedy restoration, he mentioned on X, previously Twitter.
The taking pictures occurred within the philosophy division constructing of Charles College’s College of Arts situated on Jan Palach Sq., inflicting panic all through the middle of Prague.
A photograph that circulated on social media confirmed a bunch of eight college students who climbed by way of home windows to disguise on a ledge of the constructing about 5 tales up.
A trainer on the college, Sergei Medvedev, confirmed to RFE/RL that lecturers and college students acquired e-mail messages instructing them to remain barricaded of their lecture rooms and switch off lights to guard themselves from the shooter, who was contained in the constructing on the time.
Medvedev mentioned he was lecturing when he and his college students started listening to folks shouting and sirens. Once they regarded out the window and noticed streets cordoned off and the bridge empty, they barricaded themselves within the classroom till particular forces arrived.
All the scholars who had been with him bought out safely, he mentioned, however on their manner out they noticed a ”horrible” scene that included blood within the stairway and stretchers that appeared to have our bodies on them.
”We didn’t know what was occurring…and the way it was going to finish,” pupil Liza Chukharova informed Present Time, describing how she and fellow college students barricaded themselves of their classroom for 40 minutes till particular forces got here and informed them to stroll out with their fingers raised.
”There was an excessive amount of blood in every single place and stretchers round,” she mentioned, including that emergency employees had been available to offer psychological help to those that wanted it together with tea and metallic covers to heat themselves.
”They’re saying that all the things goes to be all proper,” she mentioned.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Present Time, Dnes, and Reflex