• Tweeter

  • republish

A man shot dead six people Tuesday morning in a Czech hospital before fleeing and killing himself on Tuesday, December 10, 2019. Reuters

Six dead and three wounded: this is the provisional assessment after a man fired on Tuesday, December 10, on patients in a hospital in the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The suspect fled before returning his gun when the police were about to arrest him.

From our correspondent in Prague , Alexis Rosenzweig

" The perpetrator of this terrible crime is dead, " the Czech Minister of the Interior announced late Tuesday morning. After a few hours of hunting, the security forces tried to apprehend the suspect, who shot himself in the head at the wheel of his car in Ostrava, the third largest city in the Czech Republic. km east of Prague .

The 42-year-old man would have done it " because he was convinced that he was seriously ill and that nobody wanted to cure him ". This is in any case what indicated his employer on public radio, which states that two of the three wounded are in serious condition.

Weapons Act

According to the police, the killer fired on the victims at a very short distance with a Czech-made 9mm weapon he illegally held. Shooting of this type is rare in this Central European country. The deadliest one killed eight people in 2015, about 100 kilometers further south, in the small town of Uhersky Brod, reputed to be the seat of the most famous national arms manufacturers.

The Czech Republic was denied last week its complaint against a new European directive that restricts the type of firearms that individuals can legally hold.