A gunman killed himself on Tuesday after shooting dead six patients at a hospital in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, in what the country’s premier 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 located some 300km east of Prague, police said.
Four men and two women died during the assault, which lasted only a few seconds.
A father was gunned down as he protected his daughter, according to Czech Television. Two men were prison service employees, said the justice ministry.
Two other people were seriously wounded. A woman was in a critical condition after being shot in the head and a man was past the worst following surgery, rescue services said. Another man sustained light injuries.
Police said they had not yet determined what drove the 42-year-old to launch the attack.
“The gunman was allegedly shooting from a close range, aiming at the head and neck,” Prime Minister Andrej Babis told local media in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
The broadsheet daily Dnes quoted a witness as saying the gunman had chased children out of the waiting room before opening fire.
“He walked up to a victim, shouted ‘one’ and shot, then he went to another, shouted ‘two’ and shot,” she said.
Another witness told Czech TV the gunman had tried to recharge after emptying his first cartridge but was interrupted and fled.
The shooter then left the scene in a silver Renault Laguna car, sparking a police hunt involving hundreds of officers and two helicopters.
“His mother cooperated with the police – he came home, told her he had shot people and that he was going to shoot himself now,” Babis said at the site of the crime after travelling to Ostrava.