Prague shooting: student kills 14 people at university

A Prague university student shot dead at least 14 people and injured 25 others before killing himself in what is believed to be the worst mass shooting in modern Czech history.

Authorities warned that the death toll could rise, adding that the shooting had been "a premeditated violent attack", apparently inspired by similar massacres abroad. 

The 24-year-old shooter, named locally as David Kozak, appeared to have first killed his father in their family home near Kladno, 15 miles west of Prague, according to a police spokesperson.

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President Petr Pavel declared Saturday a day of national mourning, and stressed that the killings should not be used to launch political attacks. The shootings were not connected to international or domestic terrorism, Czech interior minister Vít Rakušan said.

The attack began shortly after 3pm. Teachers and students were instructed by email to take shelter, stay put, lock doors and turn off lights. By 3.20pm, the shooter's body was lying on a ledge of a university building with "devastating injuries". Authorities confirmed on Friday that the attacker had killed himself.

Police are investigating whether "violent, expletive-laden Russian-language messages" posted on Telegram under the name David Kozak were connected to the gunman, The New York Times said. 

One message said that two mass shootings in Russia were the inspiration for the attack, one earlier this month and another in 2021.

On 10 December, three days after a 14-year-old Russian girl, Alina Afanaskina, opened fire on her classmates in Bryansk, killing two, a message by David Kozak read: "I was very inspired by Alina… very much. [But] she certainly did not kill enough. I will try to fix that."

European leaders sent their condolences, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posting on X that she was "shocked by the senseless violence".

Gun crime is "relatively rare" in the Czech Republic, said The Guardian, with yesterday's shooting believed to be the country's deadliest in modern history.