Prague shooting: Bodycam footage shows police storming building in search for gunman

Police have released bodycam footage of officers storming a university building during their response to a shooting in Prague which killed 14 people.

The footage shows armed officers entering a building and members of the public fleeing the scene at Charles University in Prague on Thursday.

The gunman – named in Czech media as 24-year-old David Kozak – opened fire in the philosophy department, where he was a student.

At a press conference today, Petr Matejcek, director of the police regional headquarters in Prague, said they received a call from someone who said they were going to “try and follow the example of the perpetrator and start shooting” but they managed to identify and detain them.

A police spokesperson also told reporters the gunman was believed to be on the upper floors of the building when armed officers arrived on Thursday. They later redirected their search to the roof.

Students at the university had barricaded themselves in their classrooms.

A perimeter was put in place around the university building, officers added at the press conference.

At one point the gunman shot and injured three people outside the building with a long-ranged weapon and the police fired back.

As the police approached his location he was armed with a shotgun and killed himself, Mr Matejcek added.

Officers found his body while searching the building.

Mr Matejcek added that “piles of ammunition” in “unbelievable quantities” were found at the scene and that the killing could have been worse without the speed of the police response.

Officers said they reached the scene within four minutes.

The gunman killed at least 14 people and injured 25.

Charles University named one of the victims as Lenka Hlavkova, director of the Institute of Music Science FF UK.

Three foreign nationals – two from Saudi Arabia and one from the Netherlands – were among those wounded, authorities have said.

No foreign nationals were among those killed, they added.

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Martin Vondrasek, Prague’s police chief, said the force believed the suspect killed his father earlier on Thursday in his hometown of Hostoun and had been planning to kill himself, too.

Based on a search of his home, he is also thought to be a suspect in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter last Friday.

It is the worst mass shooting the country has suffered.

Saturday will be a national day of mourning to honour the victims, Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said.

President Petr Pavel said there was “helpless anger at the unnecessary loss of so many young lives”.

“I would like to express my sincere condolences to all relatives of the victims, to all who were at this tragic incident,” he added.