Gunman kills 10 at Prague university, leaves several others wounded

At least 10 people have died and 30 others were injured in a gun attack at a university in Prague, emergency services in the Czech capital say.

Eyewitnesses said the attacker had been killed and those wounded had varying severity of injuries.

Evacuation efforts are ongoing as some students locked themselves in classrooms during the shooting, police said in an update on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A picture being shared on social media showed several student hiding on on a ledge high up the building.

The incident – at the philosophy building of Charles University – happened in the center of the capital. The area is popular with tourists and close to major attractions, just across the Vltava River from Prague Castle.

The university was holding classes on Thursday and was due to go on Christmas break on December 23, according to a schedule on the university’s website.

Police are at the scene, with the surrounding area “completely cordoned off.” They earlier said that the attacker had been “eliminated” without giving more details.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her condolences following the shooting.

“Shocked by the senseless violence of the shooting that claimed several lives today in Prague,” she wrote in a post on X. “We stand and mourn with you.”

Shootings are relatively rare in the Czech Republic, according to Reuters.

In December 2019, a 42-year-old man killed six people at a hospital waiting room in Ostrava in the east of the country before shooting himself, reports Reuters.

And in 2015 a man killed eight people in a shooting at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod before killing himself, reports Reuters.