The Czech Republic has declared a day of national mourning on Saturday after a gunman killed 14 people and wounded 25 others at a university in Prague, according to the BBC. Of the 25 injured in the attack, ten are seriously injured, the police said, adding that no police officers were injured. This is one of the worst mass shootings in recent European history.
President Petr Pavel expressed his “immense sadness” and “helpless anger” regarding the “completely unnecessary” loss of life.
The attacker, a Czech student, was eliminated, more precisely he killed himself. The attacker, whom the Police said was “eliminated”, is suspected of having also killed his father and could be related to the death of two other people last week.
The police said that the attacker is also suspected of killing a young man and his two-month-old daughter, who were found dead in a forest on the outskirts of Prague, on December 15.
According to Czech media, it was the student’s mother who alerted the authorities about the suicidal thoughts.
The shooting began around 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Thursday at the Faculty of Arts building of Caroline University in the center of the Czech capital. The attacker opened fire in the building’s corridors and classrooms, apparently shooting at random, while staff and students used furniture to barricade themselves in the rooms.
Dramatic images posted on social networks show people jumping from the first floor, from an outside ledge. Gunshots can also be heard.
The police say that the attacker was David Cozak, a 24-year-old university student and had no criminal record, adding that “a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition” was found.
Before the attack, the Police received information that the suspect would have headed to Prague from a nearby city, with the intention of committing suicide.
A short time later, the man’s father was found dead. Police evacuated another university building where the attacker was expected to attend a lecture, but were soon called to the main faculty building nearby.
The last moments of life of the attacker in Prague and the heroic gesture of a Czech journalist
Mass media reported today that the death toll could have been higher if not for the intervention of a Czech journalist, Jiri Forman, considered a hero by many, some even asking the Czech president Petr Pavel to give him a medal for the gesture he made. David Kozak hid on the terrace of a university building in central Prague on Thursday afternoon, and from there fired on innocent people in Jan Palach Square using an assault weapon.
Journalist and cameraman Jiri Forman, who was among the policemen on the scene at the time, decided to draw Kozak’s attention so that he would not shoot at the people fleeing the square. While filming, the journalist stood up, yelling, “Hey, you brat! Shoot me! Hey, I’m here!” Kozak then turned his attention to Forman and began shooting at him and the police who were called to intervene to neutralize the attacker.
“I had already looked and saw that we were all covered,” Forman told Nova TV. “Whereas people running away from college were actually a relatively easy target. That’s why I called them to shoot in my direction, because I was covered.”
Immediately afterwards, footage shows a police officer asking Forman: “What are you doing?”, to which the journalist replies: “What the hell do you think I’m doing? There are people everywhere.”
The Czech journalist believes that the young man planned Thursday’s attack in detail. “He had a great shooting position, he must have needed a lot of time to prepare. He also had an excellent weapon, an assault rifle with a scope,” said Jiri Forman.
The journalist also said that a policeman started shooting at the attacker, even though he was probably 70 meters away, and then the young man would have committed suicide.