Prague university shooting: All victims identified as Czechs mourn 14 dead in Charles University attack

The identity of the gunman who opened fire at a Prague university on Thursday killing 14 people has been revealed.

Student David Kozák opened fire on the fourth floor of Charles University in Jan Palach Square shortly after 3pm, with chilling images appearing of the shooter dressed in black, taking aim from a balcony with a large gun.

Police raced to the scene and evacuated students and tourists near the building in the city centre, with Kozak’s body found a short while later with “devastating injuries”.

Authorities have confirmed that the 24-year-old was a history student at the university and that he acted alone.

Athena Stavrou and Holly Evans report.

People hid on the ledge of a Prague university building during a mass shooting in which at least 14 people were killed on Thursday, 21 December.

A group wae filmed huddling together below a window on the outside of the Jan Palach Library at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts.

Mourners placed candles and flowers near Charles University in Prague, a day after a horrific mass shooting.

At least 14 people were killed and more than 20 were injured in the Czech Republic’s worst-ever mass shooting on Thursday.

David Kozak, 24, has been named as the gunman.

Czech police on Friday investigated the motive behind a student’s dayslong violent rampage culminating in a shooting at the university he attended in Prague that left 14 dead and dozens wounded.

The gunman behind the nation’s worst-ever mass shooting has been identified as 24-year-old David Kozak.

Investigators believe Kozak also killed his father earlier in the day, and another man and a baby last week.

Petr Matejcek, the director of the police regional headquarters in Prague, said the gunman killed himself on the balcony of the university building as officers closed in.

“Hey, you f*****, here I am, shoot here!” screamed a Czech reporter trying to distract a gunman who killed 14 people at a university building in Prague on Thursday.

Jiri Forman, a reporter for a small security-focused news outfit who said he had experience in war zones, evaded fire from the gunman who was perched on a balcony on the top floor of Charles University’s Faculty of Art.

While ducking behind a corner in a square below, he kept feeding information to police outside and urged them to fire back, while filming continuously on his phone.

Asked by an officer what was he doing, Forman is heard in the footage shouting: “So that he doesn’t shoot at the people! What do you think I am doing, man? There are people there!”His actions have won him plaudits in Czech media, but Forman played down suggestions he was a hero.

“Where I stood it was absolutely safe, nobody was there and I knew I could duck behind an obstacle,” he told Reuters on Friday.

“And if he shoots in my direction, he won’t have the people fleeing, they will have a chance to reach cover. I screamed at him and he started shooting in my direction.”

The Czech government has declared Saturday a national day of mourning to honour the shooting victims, prime minister Petr Fiala said.

It comes after the deadliest shooting in the nation’s history took place in a university building in central Prague on Thursday.

Students, politicians and civilians alike gathered outside the university on Friday in mourning.

Among those paying their respects to the dead at the university was the Czech president Petr Pavel. He said: “No one can imagine the fear and mental strain they went through yesterday. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank everyone for the sincere condolences and words of support, which come from all around the world.”

The gunman’s motives for the attack or not yet known, but police were reportedly already searching for David Kozak at the time of the incident.

Authorities are probing the potential connection between a series of violent, expletive-laden Russian-language messages posted on Telegram, including a message posted by the shooter saying: “I always wanted to kill. I thought I would be a maniac in the future.”

One of the messages posted by the user indicated that inspiration for the attack may have been drawn from two previous mass shootings in Russia—one occurring this month at a school in Bryansk near the Ukraine border, and the second in 2021 in Kazan, the capital of the Russian region of Tatarstan.

“I was very inspired by Alina … very much,” a message shared on 10 December said, just three days after a 14-year-old Russian girl, Alina Afanaskina, opened fire on her classmates.

It is not thought that Kozak was linked to any extremist ideology or groups.

All 14 victims in Prague’s university shooting have been identified, the Czech authorities announced on Friday.

None of the victims were foreign citizens, interior minister Vit Rakusan told reporters. Czech Police have already contacted the families of the deceased and the injured, the minister added.

“Most of the injured are in stable condition, with one person currently in serious condition.”Lenka Hlávková, the head of the Charles University’s Institute of Music Sciences, was named as one of the victims of the attack.

National newspaper Lidovky identified its proofreader and student, Lucie Špindlerová, as one of the people killed in the attack.

Two citizens from the United Arab Emirates and one from the Netherlands were among the two dozen people who sustained injuries during the mass shooting in Prague, interior minister Vit Rakusan said.

At least 14 people were killed in a shooting rampage after a 24-year-old gunman opened fire at the Charles University in Prague on Thursday afternoon.

The shooter, identified as David Kozak, turned the gun to himself after being cornered by the city police.

The gunman behind the Czech Republic’s worst-ever mass shooting has been identified as 24-year-old David Kozak.

He lived in a village, located 20km outside Prague, and was a student of history at the university, authorities said on Friday.

He was an “excellent student”, Prague police chief Martin Vondrasek said, adding that the student legally owned several guns and was heavily armed during the incident.