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At least 10 people have been killed in a shooting at the main university in the Czech capital, Prague, according to police and medical services.
A police cordon has been set up around Jan Palach square, which houses the arts faculty of Charles University in the heart of the city, following the shooting on Thursday. Czech media showed police officers standing on the balcony of the faculty while ambulances rushed to the scene.
Police said that the unidentified shooter had been “eliminated” while the country’s interior minister separately said that no other gunman had been identified, suggesting it was a lone wolf attack.
Local media reported that a blast was heard and that the presumed gunman had probably been on the roof of the faculty building. Residents of the neighbourhood were ordered to stay at home.
Local medical services said 11 people had been killed, including the attacker, while a further nine were seriously injured and about 16 others suffered moderately serious or light injuries. These “numbers could still change,” they added.
Czech interior minister Vít Rakušan said “no other gunman has been confirmed”, but offered no details as to the identity of the presumed killer.
President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked by the events” in Prague and offered his condolences to the families and relatives of the victims. Petr Fiala, the country’s prime minister, cancelled all his planned events, citing the “tragic events” in the capital.
Gun crime is rare in the Czech Republic. In 2019 a gunman killed six people in a hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself.
The Czech police and the interior minister were scheduled to hold a news conference about the shooting later on Thursday.
Charles University, founded in 1348, is one of the oldest in Europe as well as the largest in the Czech Republic.
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