Prague shooting latest: Police probe links to Russian Telegram posts after 14 killed at Charles University

Czech Republic authorities are probing the potential connection between a series of violent, expletive-laden Russian-language messages posted on Telegram and the perpetrator of the university shooting, as confirmed by the police chief.

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.

The shooting killed two students. “She certainly did not kill enough. I will try to fix that,” the message said.

“I always wanted to kill. I thought I would be a maniac in the future,” another message from the user said.

Yesterday’s events in Prague, a city so popular with tourists around the world, shocked many people.

Among thos offering messages of condolence this morning was White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

She wrote: “The president and the first lady are praying for the families who lost loved ones and everyone else who has been affected by this senseless act of violence.

“On behalf of the United States, we send our condolences and also wish the survivors of this tragic event a speedy recovery.”

Press coverage of this story all began when the gunman opened fire from the fourth floor of the Charles University in Prague - but it appears a series of deadly events started much earlier.

The 24-year-old history student at the university is believed to have shot his own father earlier in the day. He is also suspected in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter on December 15 in Prague.

He is from a town called Hostoun, just west of Prague.

Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said investigators do not suspect a link to any extremist ideology or groups

Mr Vondrasek added that the gunman as an excellent student with no criminal record. It’s not clear of the motive at this stage.

The gunman’s life ended when he killed himself or was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire with officers. There is “nothing to suggest that he had an accomplice”, Mr Vondrasek added.

A gunman has killed 14 people in a university building in Prague on Thursday, police confirmed.

Czech police raced to a shooting at Jan Palach Square in the city centre shortly after 3pm, later adding the gunman’s body had also been found in the area.

Images and videos on social media show crowds of people fleeing the scene. One chilling picture shows eight students perched on a ledge high up on the faculty in an apparent bid to hide from the gunman.

Eyewitnesses said the lone shooter, dressed in black and armed with a rifle, was a young person who threw his weapon down on the street.

Petr Nedoma, director of the Rudolfinum Gallery at a concert hall across Palach Square, told Czech TV he saw the shooter put his hands up.

“I saw a young person on the gallery who had some weapon in his hand, like and automatic weapon, and shooting toward the Manes Bridge,” he said.

“Then I saw as he shot, he put his hands up and threw the weapon down on the street, it lay there on the pedestrian crossing,” he said.

Another witness, Ivo Havranek, 43, told Reuters via Zoom that he initially thought the “couple of bangs” he heard might have come from loud tourists or a nearby movie set.

“Then suddenly there were students and teachers running out of the building. I went through the crowd not realising what is actually going on. I wasn’t ready to admit that something like that could happen in Prague,” he said.

He only knew for sure it was serious once he saw police officers with automatic rifles, he said.

“They shouted at me to run.”

Thursday’s mass shooting at a university in Prague is the deadliest in Czech history.

The death toll surpassed that of the 2015 Uherský Brod shooting, in which nine people including the gunman were killed in a restaurant.

In December 2019, a 42-year-old gunman killed six people in a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself, police said.

Family members and friends placed flowers and candles outside Carolinum, the headquarters of Charles University in Prague, to pay respect to the 14 people, who lost their lives in the shooting.

The Rector of Charles University in Prague Milena Králíčková announced that the university has initiated a crisis chat service for students and academics to aid them in coping with the tragedy. The university is also making every effort to provide support to the families of the victims.

Prague police said they are working to identify the 14 victims of the deadly shooting, according to interior minister Vít Rakušan following the government’s late-night session.

Detectives continued their work on the site through the night.

In response to the incident, the police have established a dedicated crisis line (974 823 158) for the public to obtain more information. Officials have requested the public refrain from calling the emergency line 158 in connection with this case.

The possibility of foreign students being among the victims of the tragedy has not been dismissed by the authorities.