Police are still trying to understand the motives of the killer, who acted alone. The day before, this student killed thirteen people at Charles University in Prague. It was the worst attack in the Czech Republic's modern history.

Shocked by the massacre in a relatively peaceful capital, mourners improvised a memorial outside the university with a multitude of candles in memory of the victims, while police continued their investigation on the campus located in the historic center of the Czech capital. The 24-year-old student shot dead 13 people and wounded 25 others, before killing himself. "We know the identities of the 14 dead. It's about 13 victims of the crazed gunman and himself," Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told state television on Friday, revising downwards the previous death toll of 14.

The government declared a national day of mourning on December 23 and the public was asked to observe a minute's silence at noon.

Gunman 'left for Prague saying he wanted to kill himself'

Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said earlier that the gunman, who is unknown to the courts, had a "huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition" and that the swift action of the police had prevented further carnage. All the victims were killed inside the building, and some of them were college mates of the murderer.

According to Vondrasek, police had started searching for the student even before the shooting, as his father had been found dead in the village of Hostoun, west of Prague. The gunman "left for Prague saying he wanted to kill himself," he said, declining to confirm whether the gunman had indeed killed his father.

Police searched a Faculty of Arts building where the gunman was scheduled to report for a class, but he eventually made his way to the faculty's main building, which is nearby. The faculty is located in the historic centre of Prague, close to major sights such as the 14th-century Charles Bridge and the picturesque Old Town Square. Police learned of the shooting at around 00 GMT and immediately dispatched a response unit. Twenty minutes later, the gunman was found dead.

Citing an investigation on social media, Vondrasek said the shooter was inspired by a "similar case in Russia," without going into details. Vondrasek said police suspected the same gunman killed a young man and his two-month-old daughter in a pram during a walk in a forest on the eastern outskirts of Prague on Dec. 15. The investigation into the murder had stalled until evidence found in Hostoun linked the shooter to the crime.

A "horrible act" that nothing can justify, according to the Prime Minister

Support from local and international politicians poured in after the attack. "Nothing can justify this horrific act," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said, expressing his condolences to the bereaved families. U.S. President Joe Biden offered his condolences, denouncing a "senseless" shooting. French President Emmanuel Macron, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke. According to Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, there was no link between the shooting and "international terrorism" and the student was acting alone.

With AFP

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