Several Killed in Shooting at University in Prague

Several people were killed and “tens” of others wounded in a shooting on Thursday at Charles University in central Prague, Czech police said.

The governor of the Prague region, Bohuslav Svoboda, said the shooter, so far unidentified, fell from the roof of the university’s faculty of arts building after opening fire on Jan Palach Square, an area of manicured lawns adjacent to the Vltava River that cuts through the Czech capital.

The police said the shooter had been “eliminated” but did not specify how, suggesting he had died. They also said that the Faculty of Arts building had been evacuated. The square next to it has been sealed off. Videos posted on social media showed people running away.

Shootings are extremely rare in the Central European country and alarm over Thursday’s incident prompted the prime minister, Petr Fiala, to cut short a trip to the city of Olomouc in the east of the Czech Republic and rush back to Prague.

Barbora Petrova contributed reporting.