At least 14 people have reportedly been killed in a mass shooting in downtown Prague in the Czech Republic, according to initial reports fromThe Associated Press,TheNewYorkTimesandReuters.
More than 20 people were wounded in the shooting, the AP reports. Reuters reports the shooter was 24 years old and that the killing began shortly after 3 p.m. local time.
Czech police said the shooter is believed to be a student and that he killed his father before the shooting began, Reuters also reports. Police said that based upon a search of the shooter’s home, the gunman is also suspected to have killed a man and his 2-month-old child east of Prague last week.
Police Chief Martin Vondrasek reportedly said the shooter legally owned several guns and that Thursday’s shooting was a “well thought out, a horrible act."
A police officer patrols Manes Bridge.CTK via AP Images
CTK via AP Images
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“I saw a young person on the gallery who had some weapon in his hand, like an automatic weapon, and shooting toward the Manes Bridge. 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,” he said.
A police officer patrols the closed Manes Bridge.CTK via AP Images
Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svobodatweetedthat he has “no words” to describe Thursday’s shooting.
“I have no words. All I feel at this moment is sadness,” the mayor wrote, according to an English translation on the social media site X (formerly Twitter).
“As the mayor of Prague, I have to react. And to assure the people of Prague that they are safe,” Svoboda wrote. “We witnessed a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. It is appalling how many innocent lives have been wasted. My deepest condolences to all the bereaved. We must not give way to evil!”
Gun crimes are relatively rare in the Czech Republic. The country last experienced a mass shooting in 2019 when a man killed six people, including himself, at a hospital, according to Reuters. In 2015, a man shot and killed eight people before killing himself.
The European country has not experienced more than 10 gun-related homicides in a single year since 2014, according toGunPolicy.org, an international gun violence prevention group.
source: people.com
