Search for motives for gun attack in Prague continues
The 24-year-old gunman shot 13 people and injured 25 others on Thursday. One of the injured victims later died in hospital. Two of the injured were from the United Arab Emirates and one injured person had Dutch citizenship, said Interior Minister Vit Rakusan. According to police, the 24-year-old shot from a balcony.
"This is extremely cruel news for all of us," wrote the Musicology Institute on Facebook after it became known that 49-year-old institute director Lenka Hlavkova was among the fatalities. Translator and expert in Finnish literature Jan Dlask and student Lucie Spindlerova were also killed.
On Friday, the police also confirmed the suspicion that the shooter killed himself after the crime. He was himself a student at Charles University. Police chief Martin Vondrasek said after inspecting the crime scene that it was "the most shocking experience" in 31 years of service.
The Minister of the Interior had already stated on Thursday that there were no indications of a connection to international terrorism. The shooter was therefore a lone perpetrator. He was not known to the police and, according to the investigators, had a "huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition".
Nevertheless, the police have since arrested four people because they either threatened to copy the crime or advocated it. According to Vondrasek, police stations will remain on duty at several locations, including several schools, until at least the New Year.
The attack was carried out at a Charles University building in the historic center of Prague. According to Vondrasek, officers had already begun searching for the 24-year-old after the man's father was found dead in the village of Hostoun, west of Prague. A note from the perpetrator was also found there in which he announced his intention to kill himself in Prague.
The police then searched the main building of the Faculty of Philosophy on the assumption that they would find the 24-year-old there at a lecture. However, the shooter had entered another building of the faculty and was not found in time.
At around 3 p.m., the first information about shots was finally received. According to Vondrasek, the rapid reaction force was on the scene within twelve minutes. The shooter's body was found at around 3.20 pm.
The 24-year-old is also suspected of killing a young man and his two-month-old daughter during a walk in the woods on December 15. A ballistics analysis revealed that the gun used in the woods was "identical" to a gun "found in the university shooter's home," police wrote on the online service X, formerly Twitter.
An impromptu memorial site with hundreds of candles was set up in front of the university near Prague's famous Charles Bridge. The Czech government declared a national day of mourning on Saturday.
The act was absolutely unprecedented for the Czech Republic, 17-year-old Richard Smaha told the AFP news agency. "This is not America, things like this don't happen in the Czech Republic. I think it's terrible."
The act caused horror beyond the country's borders. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the White House in Washington and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also expressed their condolences.
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Source: www.stern.de
