PRAGUE – A 24-year-old student killed 14 people and wounded 25 at a Prague university on Thursday in the worst shooting in the Czech Republic in decades, before authorities said the attacker was “eliminated.”

The violence in the city’s historic center prompted evacuations, a massive response from heavily armed police and warnings for people to stay indoors.

The shooting occurred at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, which is close to major tourist attractions such as the 14th-century Charles Bridge.

“At the moment I can confirm 14 victims of the terrible crime and 25 injured, 10 of them seriously,” Police Chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters after the shooting.

All the victims were killed inside the building, he said. Media said at least some were fellow students of the shooter.

According to the Dutch Foreign Ministry, one of the injured was a Dutch citizen.

Vondrasek added that the shooter, who was previously unknown to police, had a “huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition” and that quick police intervention could prevent a far worse bloodbath.

The government declared a national day of mourning on December 23, with flags at official buildings flown at half-mast and people asked to observe a minute’s silence at 12 p.m.

Lists of missing students were shared on social media, while those who were safe before the shooting posted messages to inform their friends and relatives.

Vondrasek said police began searching for the man before the mass shooting because his father was found dead in the village of Hostoun, west of Prague.

The shooter “left for Prague and said he wanted to kill himself,” Vondrasek said. Police previously suspected the gunman had killed his father.

The police searched a building in the Faculty of Arts where the shooter was scheduled to attend a lecture. However, when he went to the main faculty building nearby, he was not found.

“At 1359 GMT we received the first information about the shooting,” Vondrasek told reporters, adding that the rapid response unit was on the scene within 12 minutes.

“At 14:20 GMT, officers in the field told us of the shooter’s motionless body,” Vondrasek said, adding that unconfirmed information showed he had killed himself.

Another murder

Citing a social media investigation, Vondrasek said the shooter was inspired by a “similar case in Russia,” without going into details.

Vondrasek said police believe the same gunman also killed a young man and his 2-month-old daughter in a stroller while walking in a forest on the eastern outskirts of Prague on December 15.

The police investigation into the murder that shocked Prague had stalled until evidence was found in Hostoun linking the gunman to the crime.

Vondrasek said no police officers were injured in Thursday’s action.

Police evacuated the building and used a concert hall across the street as a temporary shelter for the evacuees.

Czech President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked” by the violence and expressed “deep regret and sincere condolences” to the families and relatives of the victims.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the “lone gunman…wasted many lives, mostly young people.”

“There is no justification for this terrible act,” he added.

The worst shooting since the Czech Republic’s independence in 1993 also sparked expressions of support from around the world.

US President Joe Biden expressed his condolences and called the shooting “senseless”.

“The president and first lady are praying for the families who have lost loved ones and for everyone else affected,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed his “solidarity” with the Czech people, as did other European leaders, including EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“NO OTHER GUNMAN”

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said there was no connection between the shooting and “international terrorism.”

He added that “no additional shooter has been confirmed.”

Police cordoned off the area and urged residents to stay at home.

The Prague emergency service announced on X that “a large number of ambulance units” were in use at the faculty.

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.