The Prague Shooting - 21st December 2023

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Despite the awfulness of the event that occurred on the 21st December 2023 in Prague, I wanted to create an entry in my blog, to provide some background to those who may read the blog as they consider visiting the beautiful city of Prague in the future.

On the afternoon of Thursday 21st December, a student of Charles University, (Univerzita
Karlova - founded in 1347, Charles University is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest such institutions in Europe - https://cuni.cz/UKEN-1.html), a student with legal access to a number of firearms, entered the Faculty of Arts and began to open fire. Previous information had been received that the student in question intended to commit suicide, and this he did as the police closed in on him. The result of the shooting was the deaths of 14 people, and further investigations linked the shooter to three other deaths which occurred on or before the 21st December, a total of 17 deaths in all and many wounded in the subsequent event.

The Mayor of Prague, Bohuslav Svoboda, accurately stated: “We always thought this was a thing that did not concern us. Now it turns out that, unfortunately, our world is also changing, and the problem of the individual shooter is emerging here as well.”

The purpose of this blog entry is to assure readers that the incident which took place as described, is not common in Prague or Czechia. Although this was indeed one of the worst incidents of its type, ever, in Czechia and also in Europe, and despite Czechia's fairly relaxed attitude to the licensing and ownership of firearms, this type of mass shooting, (sadly all too common in the United States), incident remains very rare.

As I write, the police investigation and the causes behind the young man's actions are still in progress. The police in Prague are to be commended for their response and bravery to what was a rapidly unfolding and extremely dangerous situation, the first police responders being "on scene" within 4 minutes and the SWAT tactical team arriving within 12 minutes. As summarised by Police President Martin Vondrasek, (paraphrased): "...had the police action not been as swift as it was, there would have been many more casualties."

There is no question that the incident cast a dark shadow over a period of the year which by tradition should have been one of the happiest.

I close with the notice posted on the Charles University website:

"We mourn the loss of life of members of our university community, express our deepest condolences to all the bereaved and our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragedy. We now ask everyone to try to remain calm and composed, and we again extend our condolences to all those whose hearts have been broken by the loss of loved ones..."

[PLEASE NOTE: Credit for the candle image is to be given to the website www.expats.cz from where it was copied. The remaining photographs were taken by me].

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