This Christmas most people’s thoughts are with the victims of the Prague gunman

Just one day before the Czech Republic was due to begin its Christmas celebrations, it held a national day of mourning for the victims of the worst mass shooting in its history.

Flags flew at half mast and a minute’s silence was held at noon for the 14 people killed by a lone shooter on 21 December in the arts faculty at Prague’s Charles University. Images of students hiding from the killer on narrow ledges high above the street horrified the peaceful central European country, where mass violence is extremely rare.

Flags fly at half mast and minute’s silence observed two days after Charles University student killed 14 people

Bells rang out and flags flew at half mast on Saturday as the Czech Republic mourned the 14 victims of the country’s worst mass shooting.

The archbishop, Jan Graubner, said mass at the main St Vitus cathedral at Prague Castle and a minute of silence was observed at midday, with people stopping in streets amid heavy rain and snow, and in malls while Christmas shopping.

Twenty-five others wounded in attack at Charles University as local media name suspect as David Kozák

The Czech Republic has declared Saturday a day of mourning after a 24-year-old student killed 14 people and wounded 25 others at his Prague university in what is believed to be the worst mass shooting in the country’shistory.

The death toll from Thursday’s shooting at Charles University in the city centre stood at 14, the interior minister, Vit Rakušan, said on Czech television on Friday. Authorities said three foreign nationals, two from the United Arab Emirates and one from the Netherlands, were among 25 wounded.

Police say gunman owned multiple firearms, as allowed by among the most permissive gun laws in the EU

A fatal mass shooting in the cloistered environs of Prague might seem a bolt from the blue. In a city historically renowned for defenestrations but less for violent crime, safety and security are taken for granted much more than in most European capitals.

The reaction of Prague’s mayor, Bohuslav Svoboda, whose offices at Prague New Town Hall lie a short distance from the scene of the crime, conveyed many locals’ bewilderment as they struggled to digest the horror that had unfolded.