PRAGUE — 2023 · Major Tragedy

The Charles University Shooting

ClosedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

On 21 December 2023, a 24-year-old postgraduate student carried out a shooting at the Faculty of Arts building of Charles University in Prague's historic centre. Fourteen people died and 25 were injured; the perpetrator took his own life after encountering police. Police established that the same man had killed a father and his two-month-old baby in the Klánovice forest on the eastern edge of Prague on 15 December. The deadliest shooting in the Czech Republic's modern history, it led to tighter checks on firearms licences. The police response time and the coordination of warnings to students were also examined.

Date: 2023
Place: Staré Město, Czechia, Prague, CZ
Category: Major Tragedy
Case Status: Closed
Coordinates: 50.0880, 14.4150 ↗

Timeline of Events

15 December 2023A father and his baby were killed in the Klánovice forest.
21 December 2023The Faculty of Arts was attacked; 14 people died.
2024Gun laws were amended and the police response was reviewed.

Sources

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