Multiple people have been shot dead and injured in a shooting at a university in Prague today.
Police in the Czech Republic’s capital urged residents to shelter inside and avoid the area ‘due to an ongoing shooting incident’ close to Charles University in the centre of the city.
‘Based on initial information we can confirm there are dead and injured people at the site,’ police said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Dramatic video shows terrified crowds of tourists and locals sprinting across the famous Charles Bridge – one of Europe’s top tourist sites – after they heard the sickening sound of gunshots in the city.
In separate footage, people were seen running with their hands raised in the air from the University’s Faculty of Arts building in the capital, as armed police officers stood by.
A faculty member of the university, Zora Hesova, said people were still locked in classrooms inside the building as armed police officers descended on the scene.
People can be seen running from a building in Prague
Images circulating online and in Czech media purports to show the shooter on the roof of the university building
Police in the Czech Republic’s capital urged residents to shelter and avoid the area ‘due to an ongoing shooting incident’ close to Charles University in the centre of the city
‘As a result of the shooting, we dispatched several rescue crews to the scene. This is a larger number of injured,’ the spokeswoman for the Rescue Service, head Prague Jana Poštová, said.
‘The exact number is not yet known. However, it was necessary to announce a trauma plan.’ The police later said that there were dead and injured people at the scene.
The British Embassy in Prague has urged people in the city, a hotspot for tourists, to avoid the around the Charles University and the Faculty of Arts.
This is a breaking story, more to follow…