Updated throughout with new details. A lone gunman opened fire Thursday in a university building in downtown Prague, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 20 in the Czech Republic's worst mass shooting, authorities said. The bloodshed took place in the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooter was a student, said Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek, per the AP. The gunman also died, authorities said. His name has not been released. Vondrasek said 24 were injured, and authorities warned the death toll could rise.
Police gave no details about the victims or a possible motive for the shooting at the building located near the Vltava River in Jan Palach Square. Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said investigators do not suspect a link to any extremist ideology or groups. Vondrasek said police believe the suspect killed his father in his hometown of Hostoun, just west of Prague, earlier in the day, and that he had also been planning to kill himself. He didn't elaborate. The chief described the suspect as an excellent student but didn't provide any other information.
The suspect suffered "devastating injuries" but it wasn't clear if he killed himself or was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire with officers, Vondrasek said, adding that there was "nothing to suggest that he had an accomplice." Reuters quotes witness Petr Nedoma, who saw the shooter, apparently on a balcony of the building: "I saw a young person ... who had some weapon in his hand, like and automatic weapon, and shooting toward the Manes Bridge," he said. (The bridge spans the Vltave River.) "Repeatedly, with some interruptions, then I saw as he shot, put hands up and threw the weapon down on the street; it lay there on the pedestrian crossing." (More Prague stories.)
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