A shooting at a university in downtown Prague killed 11 people, including the shooter, and injured several others on Thursday, according to Prague's rescue service and Czech police.
Czech police reported on X, formerly Twitter, that officers were responding to reports of a shooting at a school in Jan Palach Square in the Czech Republic's capital at 3:17 p.m. CET. Shortly after their initial report, police said that there were an unidentified amount of dead and wounded people at the scene of the shooting.
Just before 4 p.m. CET, police confirmed that the shooter in the incident had been "eliminated."
Prague's medical rescue services said in a post on X that 11 people were killed in total in the shooting, including the gunman. Medical personnel were also treating 11 people who were "seriously injured," 8 "moderately injured" victims and 5 "lightly injured," in the incident, according to rescue services.
Newsweek reached out to Czech police via email for more information.
The shooting reportedly took place at the Faculty of Arts building at Charles University, according to Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda, who said in a post on X that he was "completely shocked by what happened."
"I have no words. All I feel at this moment is sadness," Svoboda wrote in a separate post.
"We witnessed a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. It is appalling how many innocent lives have been wasted," he added. "My deepest condolences to all the bereaved. We must not give way to evil!"
#BREAKING: Mass shooting reported in Prague’s Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. Casualties are feared. More details are awaited. pic.twitter.com/UOtd44Q4YM
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) December 21, 2023
Videos shared online showed people running from the scene of the shooting. Freelance journalist Jakob Weizman, who is currently studying at Charles University, shared a photo on X of his classroom door being boarded up by chairs and tables and said that he was "stuck" there.
"Currently stuck inside my classroom in Prague," read Weizman's post. "Shooter is dead, but we are waiting to be evacuated. Praying to make it out alive."
"Locked the door before the shooter tried to open it," he added. "F***ing hell."
Czech police cars still blocked off much of Jan Palach Square Thursday evening, according to a video shared by law enforcement.
"The building is still being evacuated as some students locked themselves in their rooms before the shooter," police said in a post to X just before 5 p.m. CET.
They said in a follow-up post that the building had been evacuated and that a "pyrotechnic inspection is currently underway."
Update 12/21/23, 11:57 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
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