The Czech Republic declared Saturday a day of mourning after a gunman killed 14 people in Prague in the worst mass shooting in the country's history.
David Kozak, 24, killed 14 people and injured 25 – 10 seriously – during the deadly rampage in which he attacked students and tourists from the balcony of Charles University's philosophy building.
The Czech government announced that a day of mourning will be held tomorrow, with flags at official buildings being flown at half-mast and people asked to observe a minute's silence at 12 p.m. (11 a.m. GMT).
Today, Charles University raised black flags in honor of the victims and canceled all lectures and events following the shooting.
People have been lighting candles outside the university's medieval headquarters downtown since Thursday evening, and leaders of the country's universities plan to pay respects there later Friday morning.
One frightening image shows Kozak in black, standing on the roof of a faculty building and aiming a rifle at people below
Other extraordinary images show terrified students cowering on a ledge high in a faculty, trying to hide from the gunman after others were ordered to barricade themselves in classrooms
24-year-old student David Kozak was named as the murderer by local police
The gunman began his attack at 3pm yesterday and by 4pm police said he had been “eliminated” after elite police were seen storming the building.
Police opened fire on Kozak while he was still trying to shoot other victims, police chief Martin Vondrášek said.
Extraordinary images show terrified students cowering on a ledge high on a balcony, trying to hide from the gunman after others were ordered to barricade themselves in classrooms.
Czech police announced today that 13 of the 14 victims have been identified. The Interior Ministry said the injured included two citizens of the United Arab Emirates and a Dutchman.
Kozak murdered his father in his hometown of Hostoun before traveling 13 miles to the Czech capital, where he began shooting people indiscriminately from the balcony of Charles University's philosophy building.
The gunman legally owned several weapons – police said he was heavily armed on Thursday and had a lot of ammunition with him – and that his act was “well thought out, a terrible act,” Vondrasek said.
He had a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition with him, and the country's interior minister said: “If the police had not entered the building in time, the perpetrator would not have ended up dead on the roof, but would have been a whole lot more victims.” .'
In the lead-up to his rampage, Kozak reportedly kept a diary in Russian on the messaging app Telegram, in which he wrote in a chilling post: “I want to commit a school shooting and possibly commit suicide.”
Last night it was announced that police were investigating whether Kozak may have killed a 32-year-old father and his two-month-old daughter in Klanovice, near Prague. Hundreds of police combed the forest area after the perpetrator disappeared, and authorities are currently investigating whether there could be a connection between the two assassinations.
Today, Charles University raised black flags in honor of the victims and canceled all lectures and events following the shooting
Young people light candles at a makeshift memorial to the victims in front of Charles University in central Prague on Friday
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala lays flowers in front of the Charles University building on Friday
“I want to shoot at school and possibly commit suicide, Alina Afanaskina helped me too much,” he reportedly wrote on December 10 about the Bryansk school shooter who killed two students before taking his own life.
The chilling post in her “diary” about what the author called “life before the shooting” continued: “I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a madman in the future.”
Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the “lone gunman…wasted many lives of mostly young people.”
“There is no justification for this terrible act,” he added.
Although mass gun violence is unusual in the Czech Republic, the country has been rocked by a number of incidents in recent years.
A 63-year-old man shot seven men and a woman before taking his own life in a restaurant in the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod in 2015.
In 2019, a man killed six people in a hospital waiting room in the eastern city of Ostrava, and another woman died days later. The man shot himself about three hours after the attack.
Although mass gun violence is unusual in the Czech Republic, the country has been rocked by a number of incidents in recent years.
A 63-year-old man shot seven men and a woman before taking his own life in a restaurant in the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod in 2015.
In 2019, a man killed six people in a hospital waiting room in the eastern city of Ostrava, and another woman died days later. The man shot himself about three hours after the attack.