The biggest mass shooting in the history of Prague occurred on Thursday at a University when a 24-year-old Czech student shot and killed his father.
He also left 14 people wounded and may have taken his own life, according to the police.
Following a special cabinet meeting with President Petr Pavel, the government agreed to observe December 23 as a day of sorrow throughout the nation in central Europe.
Authorities were informed earlier in the day that the suspect was probably traveling to Prague from his hamlet in the Kladno region outside of the Capital with plans to commit himself. This information helped them find a substantial armory of weapons at the downtown Prague Charles University building where the shooting occurred.
The father of the gunman was discovered deceased not long after that.
Police President Martin Vondrasek stated that shortly after learning of the shooting, officers were called to the larger main building of the Faculty of Arts, where the gunman was scheduled to give a lecture.
Police had unconfirmed information from an account on a social network that he was supposedly inspired by one terrorist attack in Russia in the autumn of this year,” Vondrasek told reporters, adding the shooter was a legal holder of several firearms.
The gunman is also suspected in the killings of another man and his two-month-old daughter who were found last week shot dead in woods in a village outside Prague, Vondrasek said.
The gunman’s death was likely a suicide but authorities are also investigating whether he may have been killed by police who returned fire, Vondrasek added.
