A gunman yesterday killed himself after shooting dead six patients at a hospital in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, in what the prime minister has called “an immense tragedy.”
The attacker gunned down people at close range at the trauma ward of the Faculty Hospital in Ostrava, a steel hub about 300km east of Prague.
Four men and two women died during the assault, which lasted only a few seconds, police said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Two other people were seriously wounded, while a third person sustained light injuries.
Police said they had not yet determined what drove the 42-year-old to launch the attack.
“I was told the dead victims were people sitting in the waiting room of the trauma ward; fortunately, there were not as many as usual,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told local media.
“The gunman was allegedly shooting from a close range, aiming at the head and neck,” he said.
The shooter then fled the scene in a silver Renault Laguna car, sparking a dramatic police hunt with hundreds of officers and two helicopters chasing him.
The man turned the gun on himself inside the vehicle as police were about to capture him in a village northwest of Ostrava, regional police chief Tomas Kuzel said.
“We identified the gunman using hospital cameras. We deployed two helicopters, identified his car... and when one helicopter descended over the car, he shot himself in the head,” Kuzel told reporters.
Czech Minister of the Interior Jan Hamacek said the man died despite resuscitation efforts.
Police said the gunman had used a “short firearm” in the attack, which took place shortly after 6am.
“As far as we know, the man is not in our database of legal gun owners,” Kuzel said, adding that there was no indication that he had an accomplice.
The public Czech Radio identified the killer as a builder from the nearby Opava District.
His boss, named as Ales Zygula, told the radio station that the attacker had “decided he was seriously ill and that no one wanted to treat him.”
Babis described the shooting as “a catastrophe.”
“It’s something we’re not used to in our country,” the populist billionaire said. “I absolutely don’t understand the motive of this young man.”
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