Celebrity relationship experts shared their insights on the challenges Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce may face in their high-profile romance.

Dr. Phil and Millionaire Matchmaker star Patti Stanger discussed the ‘biggest risk factors’ coming into play for the superstar couple during a teaser clip for the upcoming TMZ Investigates: Taylor & Travis: Ultimate Love Story released on Sunday.

The duo claims that hectic schedules and a long-distance relationship can pose problems, as Taylor, a globe-trotting pop star, lives primarily in New York and Los Angeles, while NFL player Travis works and lives in Kansas City.

“The biggest risk factor I see is that if they both have schedules that are so full, they fight to spend quality time together,” Dr. explained. Phil out in the video.

Patti interjected and said, “long distance is hard.”

“They don’t go to CVS to buy groceries, but remember what he said: ‘I like that she is like this,’” she continued.

“The others may have felt competitive and inferior.”

The “others” Patti was referring to were the long list of A-listers the singer has dated in the past.

The roster includes Joe Jonas, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner and Calvin Harris

Her brief involvement with English actor Tom Hiddleston followed her divorce from Harris, which eventually led to a six-year partnership with Joe Alwyn in 2017.

Privacy is another challenge for the super-famous couple, as NBA owner and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban suggested in the TMZ Investigates: Taylor & Travis: Ultimate Love Story teaser.

‘There is no more privacy for them. It doesn’t exist,” he claimed.

“Having security and having people around you is such a scene wherever you go. So the first thing you have to understand is that they have no privacy whatsoever.”

The clip release follows reports that the 34-year-old pop singer needs to ensure the relationship stays on a positive track following Travis’ recent ‘missteps’

“Taylor has a huge reservoir of goodwill and even adoration that can withstand her boyfriend’s behavioral and reputational mistakes,” says brand strategist and messaging consultant. Adam Hanftwhich appears to reference Travis’ meltdown during the Super Bowl and his decision to party after a mass shooting during the Kansas City parade.

“What matters is the extent to which he stays on the straight and narrow – and doesn’t embarrass himself or her – and, relatedly, the way she deals with it should become a persistent problem,” he added.

Travis’ antics not only have the potential to tarnish the Reputation singer’s $1.1 billion net worth, but could also negatively impact his own brand — and even that of the NFL.

“When Travis is plagued by impulse control issues and demonstrates psychological resistance to taking a back seat to her celebrity status — which is programmatic given that football heroes typically compete for the Nobel Prize for testosterone — and she ultimately dumps him , his personal brand will be battered,” Hanft claimed.

“Should the relationship end like this, the NFL’s brand will also be bloodied because it will reinforce the perception of football players focusing on all the wrong things,” he added.

The warning comes as Travis faces waves of criticism for almost getting into a fight with his coach Andy Reid during the Super Bowl.

A few days later Travis arrived spectacularly insensitive decision to party hard after a mass shooting with him Super Bowl parade provoked even more anger from the public.

Just hours after 22 fans were shot – nine of them children, a young mother dead – Travis visited ‘Granfalloon Restaurant and Bar’ and took selfies with police while carrying an open beer bottle on the street, having previously walked to the stage of the parade had gone looking way too drunk to talk.

Outraged fans on social media used the terms “Caveman” and “douchebag” to describe the situation.

In the aftermath, Kelce matched Taylor’s $100,000 donation to the shooting victims.

Despite Travis’ public expressions of contrition, as brand expert Hanft argued, Taylor must be careful about her future with the athlete to protect her brand. Bloomberg totals $1.1 billion, thanks in part to her massive 146-date global Eras Tour and subsequent tour film.

It comes after Forbes estimated Swift had a net worth of more than $740 million in July.

When her romance with Travis first broke out last year, the footballer said he knew he had to be on his best behavior.

“That was the biggest thing for me,” he said WJ. “Make sure I don’t say anything that will push Taylor away.”

In 1989, Holocaust historian Elizabeth White received a package containing the memoir of an unknown Polish Countess, who claimed to have rescued thousands of prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp. 

Her astonishing untold story, if true, would rival the heroics of Oskar Schindler. 

But, unable to verify the remarkable tale, White left the memoir untouched – until 2018, when she partnered with fellow historian Joanna Sliwa to authenticate its contents. 

Now, White can reveal in ‘The Counterfeit Countess’ what they discovered was even more astonishing than she could have imagined.

Majdanek Concentration Camp, Lublin, Poland, April 1, 1944:

Countess Suchodolska heard a whip crack.

Spinning about, she saw Nazi SS Lieutenant Thuman scowling down at her from horseback.

‘What’s in that damn truck of yours?’ he snarled.

The Countess had come to Majdanek at the head of her usual convoy of trucks to deliver bread and vats of soup for thousands of the concentration camp’s prisoners. 

But the truck Thumann was now approaching concealed additional supplies – razor blades and spiked alcohol.

The Countess was smuggling them for prisoners who would soon be transported to another camp. The plan was for them to ply their guards with the drugged booze and subdue them when Polish partisans attacked the train en route.

The Countess had organized the plot by sneaking messages in her humanitarian supplies between the partisans and resistance members imprisoned in Majdanek.

She faced torture and execution if the plot were discovered. The same fate awaited her if it succeeded, for suspicion would immediately fall on her.

It was suicide. But she was willing to pay with her life if it bought the prisoners’ freedom.

Hoping to distract Thumann as the prisoners unloaded the truck, the Countess replied calmly, ‘Soup and bread, plus milk for the sick as usual.’

Thumann wheeled back toward her. ‘You’re lying!’

Straightening to her full 5’1′ height, the 87-pound Countess looked the SS officer looming over her in the eye: ‘Nothing else. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you have it checked?’

Having failed to rattle the Countess, Thumann rode off in disgust.

He hated the Polish aristocrat and dreamed of finding a reason to hang her in his camp.

Fortunately for her, he had not seen behind her disguise.

For the Countess was not an aristocrat, nor was her name Suchodolska.

She was Janina Spinner Mehlberg, a brilliant mathematician, an officer in the Polish resistance … and a Jew.

Janina’s early life prepared her for the role of Countess Suchodolska.

The daughter of a wealthy Jewish estate owner, she socialized with the local nobility, absorbing their manners and customs.

At 22, she obtained a Ph.D. from the prestigious university in Lwów (today Lviv, Ukraine).

With her husband, philosopher Henry Mehlberg, she lived in comfort and actively participated in Lwów’s prewar intellectual circles.

Then the war began. The Germans seized Lwów, and the Mehlbergs experienced the horrors of persecution, privation, and the constant threat of murder.

This is when Janina showed the first signs of unusual bravery.

When Ukrainian militia seized Henry for a mass shooting, she refused to leave his side, even after a militiaman cracked her in the face with his rifle butt.

Her stubborn defiance so impressed a German Army officer that he pulled Henry from the group that was destined for death.

In December 1941, the Mehlbergs were required to move into Lwów’s ghetto, where they knew death awaited them.

Instead, they fled with Janina’s old family friend, Count Andrzej Skrzyński, who promised to provide them false papers as Polish Christians if they went with him to Lublin.

Although Jews were not permitted to travel, they made the dangerous journey safely. But in the Lublin train station, a German policeman suddenly seized Henry, accusing him of carrying contraband.

In a flash, Janina haughtily confronted the policeman in perfect German until, intimidated by her imperious demeanor, he let Henry go.

Years later, Janina wrote about the lesson she learned in this encounter and that she would go on to use to save lives: ‘What do you do with your fear and trembling in a confrontation with a swaggering bully? You confine it to the small prison of the heart, letting none seep into the muscles of the eyes, hands, or legs; you quake within and show calm authority without—you pull off a hoax. You must not toady to them, you must not let them sniff blood. Composure and coolness toward them implied the backing of power, and in the face of power they might very well shrink.’

In Lublin, Janina became Countess Suchodolska. But even as supposed ethnic Poles, the Mehlbergs still faced persecution.

The Nazis viewed Poles as subhuman racial enemies only a little better than the Jews, and Poland’s German occupiers took the lives of nearly two million Poles as well as three million Polish Jews.

Witnessing suffering and death all around her, Janina decided to do everything in her power to save others and resist the Germans.

She proceeded on the basis of a simple mathematical principle: one life has a lesser value than multiple lives, and her own life would have no value if she did not use it to save others.

There are other inspiring stories of rescue during the Holocaust. In German-occupied Poland, Oskar Schindler, Irena Sendler, and Warsaw zookeepers Jan and Antonina Żabiński together rescued perhaps more than 3,000 Nazi victims.

They were non-Jews who rescued Jews.

Janina’s story is unique.

She was a Jew who rescued non-Jews.

Through Count Skrzyński, she became an official of a Polish relief organization that the Germans only allowed to aid non-Jewish Poles.

With her perfect German, she negotiated with Nazi and SS officials, winning the release from captivity of thousands of Poles.

At Majdanek, she persuaded the commandant to permit ever more frequent deliveries of ever greater quantities of food by framing them as measures to preserve his prisoners’ capacity to perform forced labor.

She even won permission to deliver decorated Christmas trees and Easter eggs. And she used the deliveries as cover to smuggle messages, books, medical equipment, and weapons to resistance members imprisoned in the camp.

On every delivery, Janina passed the building that housed Majdanek’s gas chambers.

63,000 Jews were murdered at Majdanek.

Janina saw the smoke from the camp’s crematorium and burn pits, and knew its source.

Still, almost daily, she entered the den of mass murder.

She went there on the day her plot was to see fruition.

Some prisoners called her over to thank her for the aid that had enabled them to survive. As she shook their hands through the wire, a car screeched to a halt behind her.

Thumann jumped out. Reaching for his sidearm, he threatened to shoot her on the spot, but the other passenger, the commandant, stopped him.

Janina watched the prisoner transport depart, then radioed the resistance to prepare to attack the train.

It never happened.

Her resistance commander had led her to risk her life for a plot that he knew his superiors had not approved.

The realization that she had given the prisoners false hope of freedom filled Janina with anguish and rage.

By the end of World War II, Janina negotiated the release from captivity of nearly 10,000 Poles. It is impossible to determine how many more survived thanks to her relief and resistance activities.

And yet, to the end of her days, she was haunted by the many lives she failed to save.

Janina survived the war and was a math professor in Chicago when she died in 1969.

Hers is a story of selfless courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.

Only now is it being told.

The world needs such stories.

Elizabeth B. White is co-author of The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust, from Simon & Schuster

The parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley asked him ‘why? why?’ and told him ‘I love you’ when confronting him in a police station just hours after he shot and killed four classmates. 

New video of Jennifer and James Crumbley confronting their son in the aftermath of the shooting on November 30, 2021 was shown during Jennifer’s trial on Monday. 

The couple has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter each in the deaths of four of the shooting victims while Ethan, 17, has been sentenced to life in prison. 

As Ethan sat in a chair in the corner of an interview room with his head down, Jennifer shouted ‘Why? Why?’ at him while James said ‘I don’t think we need to ask him questions right now,’ and then told him: ‘I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you’. 

In a prior interview, the parents told police: ‘I really wish we would have taken him home,’ after seeing a violent drawing of a gun with the words ‘The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,’ that Ethan had made on the morning of the shooting. 

In the clip, Ethan appears to look at his parents and say, ‘please take care of Dexter,’ referring to his cat.

Ethan shot and killed four students, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17, and injured seven others, including a teacher, on the afternoon of November 30 2021.

Jennifer and her husband are accused of contributing to the deaths at Oxford High School by neglecting their son’s needs and making a gun accessible at home. 

It is the first time parents have ever been charged in a US mass school shooting.  

In the new video revealed on Monday, on day three of testimony, the pair can be seen running through the events of the day with police hours after the shooting. 

The couple was called into Ethan’s school on the morning of the shooting to discuss his mental health after teachers found a concerning drawing of a gun – but they left him at school and returned to work. 

Jennifer later told police the counselor ‘hadn’t seemed worried about it, and told them ‘he can stay at school or he can go home’.

She added: ‘I really wish we would have taken him home.’ 

At the start of the interview as James started telling investigators about meeting with the school counselor, Jennifer interrupted saying, ‘I think we probably should have a lawyer.’

James replied: ‘I think we can speak to the cops.’ 

Jennifer then described how she had texted with her son just minutes before the shooting, saying she had asked if he was OK at 12.21pm and he replied saying he had just gotten back from lunch. 

She said she told him he could talk to his parents and they wouldn’t judge him, and he replied ‘I know, I love you.’ 

Ten minutes later he fired his first shot and went on to kill four students and injure seven others over the next nine minutes before he was detained by police. 

In the interview, James said: ‘I mean it’s Ethan, Ethan is like, he’s a perfect kid, he doesn’t do anything.’

James also described where the gun and bullets were hidden in an armoire with the bullets hidden separately under a pair of jeans.  

Part of the case against the couple is that they bought Ethan a new gun just days before the shooting. 

But they insisted target practice is a family hobby, and James told the investigator that he took his son to the shooting range ‘all the time’ and added ‘I’ve been trying to teach him safely.’ 

The pair later asked for a lawyer again saying: ‘we would like a lawyer present from here on out’ and Jennifer, who could be seen on her phone throughout the interview, said she was messaging someone to find an attorney. 

After the charges against them were announced – the couple went missing, but their lawyers insisted they were not on the run.

‘The Crumbleys left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety. They are returning to the area to be arraigned. They are not fleeing from law enforcement despite recent comments in media reports,’ the attorneys said.

However, it was revealed on day two of the trial that Jennifer had sent a text to her boss a day before the involuntary manslaughter charges were announced saying ‘We’re on the run again. Helicopters. Not sure where to. I’ll message you.’

Other new evidence has been unearthed in court this week and presented in the case against Ethan’s parents.

Evidence shows Jennifer and her husband James were riding horses and didn’t respond when Ethan sent her text messages on March 17, 2021 saying their house was haunted.

She had told her husband earlier that day that she wanted to ‘get drunk and ride my horse,’ according to a message displayed to the jury.

Ethan said he was scared because ‘demons’ were ‘throwing bowls.’

‘Can you text back?’ he asked his mother.

It also emerged that in April 2021, seven months before the school attack, Ethan Crumbley told a friend that he was ‘mentally and physically dying.’ 

He said he asked his father to take him to a doctor but was told to ‘suck it up.’

The main issue at stake is the disturbing homework shown to his parents just hours before he carried out his murderous rampage.

On the morning of the shooting, school counselor, Scott Hopkins, called Ethan’s parents in to discuss drawings Ethan had made of a gun with the words ‘the world is dead’.

Ethan had also scrawled the words ‘blood everywhere’, ‘my life is useless’ and ‘the thoughts wont stop, help me’ over the book. 

His parents discussed the drawings with Hopkins, and decided he could go back to class.

Hopkins said on Monday: ‘If I believed he (the shooter) was a threat to people, I would’ve taken different actions.’ 

School officials later said that Crumbley talked his way out of trouble by claiming the drawings were part of plans to create a video game.

On Tuesday, then-school dean Nicholas Ejak was questioned over why Crumbley wasn’t removed from the school and why his bag wasn’t searched after the meeting. 

He said: ‘It wasn’t necessary… that I do that because I didn’t have any reasonable suspicion to do that.’ 

By the day of the shooting, at least four employees had raised concerns about Ethan’s behavior. 

As well as the drawings, a teacher had told management they had seen him researching bullets and another teacher spotted him watching a video of a person gunning people down. 

In one email to Ejak, a teacher wrote that he ‘was on his phone looking at different bullets’.

She added: ‘Now that he’s on my radar, I’m also noticing that some of his previous work that he’s completed from earlier in the year leans a bit toward the violent side.’ 

Despite the reports, Ethan was allowed to return to class after the meeting with his parents, and he later emerged from a bathroom with a pistol and began firing on fellow students.

Police said Crumbley’s first victim was freshman Phoebe Arthur, who was shot in the face but miraculously survived. A total of 13 people were shot, four of whom died.

He walked up and down hallways firing off shots until police arrived and took him into custody.  

Both of his parents have been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial, unable to afford a $500,000 bond. James Crumbley is due to stand trial in March.

Ethan, who is now 17, was sentenced to life in prison in December after he pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. Ethan was 15 at the time of the shooting.

Smith told jurors Thursday that the mother was ‘hypervigilant’ about her son and shouldn’t be blamed for the deaths. Jennifer is expected to testify in the days ahead.

Smith wants to challenge some evidence by having Ethan or his doctors speak to the jury. But his lawyers have said he would invoke his right to remain silent and also would not waive a right to privacy with psychiatrists.

Earlier this week, the attorney representing Jennifer, Shannon Smith, was forced to apologize for joking about killing herself in court in front of victims’ families.

Smith, a criminal sexual conduct defense lawyer of over 16 years, made a terrible blunder in court on Friday while appearing at Jennifer Crumbley’s involuntary manslaughter trial over the Oxford High School mass shooting.

The lawyer was struggling to operate her computer and organize her evidence when she said in frustration: ‘I’m going to kill myself’. 

Families of victims from the school shooting carried out by her client’s son were in court at the time of her insensitive joke. 

Smith apologized for her words before the trial on Monday.

‘In my frustration, I made a comment that was offensive to victims’ families,’ she said before adding that it was ‘absolutely by accident’. ‘I am apologizing for that comment.’

The senseless joke came about during the cross examination on Friday when Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews asked Smith to disassemble a pile of papers before it fell over – jokingly referring to it as the ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa’.

A Jamaican MP who posed with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at a film premiere this week warned just months ago that it was ‘time to say goodbye’ to the monarchy. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined Marlene Malahoo Forte, minister for legal and constitutional affairs, in Kingston to promote new Bob Marley movie One Love.

It comes eight months after Mrs Forte said Jamaica could ‘sever ties’ with Britain’s monarchy by the end of 2024 and the nation’s future should be ‘in Jamaican hands’.

She also criticised the Royal Family’s ‘own set of issues internally’, said Jamaicans in the UK had suffered from ‘racist’ policies and claimed that people in her country ‘do not identify with King Charles – he is as foreign as it gets to us, plain and simple’.

And back in June 2016, Mrs Forte also hit the headlines when she criticised the US Embassy in Jamaica for flying a rainbow flag following the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida – saying it was ‘disrespectful of Jamaica’s laws’.

But her post on Twitter – which was later removed – received a huge backlash online, including from the US Embassy itself which replied: ‘We’re listening. Explain the legal reasoning? It was an attack of terror !!and!! hate, targeting the LGBT community.’

After her appearance on the red carpet with Harry and Meghan on Tuesday night, Mrs Forte later tweeted a photo of the trio, prompting an X user to say: ‘Even more hilarious: the person with them here is the minister in charge of changing the constitution and making us a republic.’ Ms Forte replied, saying: ‘This is #OneLove!

She also met Prince William and Kate during their visit in March 2022, saying at the time that they were both ‘very charming and extremely delightful to interact with’.

During Harry and Meghan’s surprise appearance on Tuesday night, they were also photographed with Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness, who is pushing ahead with plans to make the nation a republic.

He told the now-Prince and Princess of Wales during their 2022 tour that his country is ‘moving on’ and intends to ‘fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country’.

Also at the time of that trip, Mrs Forte tweeted a picture of her meeting William and Kate, saying: ‘#RoyalVisitJamaica HRH the #DukeofCambridge asked me what my work involved as Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs. 

‘I will say this much: I found them both very charming and extremely delightful to interact with.’

Last May, Mrs Forte told Sky News ahead of the King’s Coronation that an ‘urgent’ referendum could be held as early as 2024 to ‘sever ties’ and remove Charles as Jamaica’s monarch.

She claimed that republicanism is ‘about us saying goodbye to a form of government that is linked to a painful past of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade’.

Mrs Forte said Jamaica was looking to write a new constitution, adding: ‘The people of Jamaica are saying the time has come. Jamaica in Jamaican hands.

‘We have to get it done, especially with the transition in the monarchy. My government is saying we have to do it now. Time to say goodbye.’

The former attorney general said: ‘A lot of Jamaicans had warm affection and identified with Queen Elizabeth II. 

‘When Jamaica became independent, Queen Elizabeth was already on the throne.

‘But they do not identify with King Charles. He is as foreign as it gets to us. Plain and simple.’

Mrs Forte also said Jamaica’s desire was partially influenced by the Royal Family’s ‘own set of issues internally’ – adding that these ‘issues’ had been ‘playing out in the news’.

And she said William’s acknowledgment of slavery but lack of apology during the 2022 tour was ‘a step in the right direction, but not far enough at all’.

During William and Kate’s visit in 2022, protesters held signs during the visit demanding the pair apologise for slavery – and at a formal state dinner, William expressed ‘profound sorrow’.

But he stopped short of a formal apology, as did his father, Charles, who spoke of his ‘personal sorrow at the suffering of so many’ in an address to Commonwealth leaders later that year.

Charles also acknowledged growing republican sentiment in some Commonwealth nations and said it was for them to decide their constitutional arrangements. 

The Windrush scandal that emerged in 2017, in which hundreds of immigrants to Britain were detained or deported after living there for years, has added to the grievances of those in Jamaica.

Mrs Forte told Sky News: ‘Jamaicans living in the United Kingdom have experienced the worst of policies that can be regarded as racist. 

‘Windrush was personal for our people. Personal. Many [affected] are our families, our friends, our people.

‘Unfortunately, the UK government got it so wrong. For people who went there to build up the wealth [of Britain]. The policies are racist and unjust – by virtue of nationality, ethnic background, and the colour of your skin. It’s just not right.’

Mrs Forte became minister of legal and constitutional affairs in January 2022, having previously served as attorney general, health minister and foreign affairs minister.

She has studied in both Britain and the US – gaining a law master’s degree from King’s College London as well as a master’s in public administration from Harvard.

Jamaica, which is a former colony of Britain, has begun the process to sever ties with the British monarchy, following in the footsteps of Barbados.

Its history of slavery and a plantation economy made some Britons wealthy but left many Jamaicans impoverished.

Jamaica first came into England’s hands in 1655 when it was seized from Spain, which had brought over the first Africans as slaves.

It gained independence in 1962 but retained the British monarch as head of state and stayed in the Commonwealth.

Waves of immigration to Britain kept the links alive as did an affection for Queen Elizabeth II, who was on the throne at the time of independence.

But even before her death in September 2022, republican sentiment was increasingly gripping the Caribbean region.

Barbados ditched the monarchy in 2021. Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and the Bahamas have all expressed an interest in cutting ties with the British crown, while Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica are already republics.

When he assumed the crown on his mother’s death, Charles became head of state not only of Britain but 14 other realms, including Canada, Australia and Jamaica.

In order to become a republic Jamaica’s Constitution requires a 2/3 majority in both the elected and nominated Houses of Parliament and a simple majority in a general referendum.

However, if it obtains a 2/3 majority in the elected House but only a simple majority in the nominated House it will require a 2/3 majority of the electorate in a referendum.

About 600,000 Africans were brought to Jamaica as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries to work on sugar, cotton and banana plantations.

The British government was involved in the Atlantic slave trade and reimbursed plantation owners for the loss of labour that occurred when slavery was outlawed in 1834.

Copycats who were ‘inspired’ by a mass shooter and promised to recreate Thursday’s massacre in Prague have been targeted by Czech police.

David Kozak opened fire at Charles University in Prague yesterday, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 20 in a calculated attack, officials said.

The bloodshed, which marks the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting, took place in the school’s philosophy department building, where the shooter was a student.

The gunman also died, authorities said. His name has not been released, but it is widely reported to be 24-year-old David Kozak, who killed his father earlier in the day and is also a prime suspect in another double homicide.

Now Czech police say they have found online messages from people expressing their intention to copy the gunman’s deadly actions.

They are working to crack down on the individuals behind the posts.

In a morning update, Czech police said they were monitoring online activity and explained that for this reason they had not released more details about the shooter.

The less visible part of our work is monitoring social networks,” the police said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.

“Immediately after the shooting, teams of analysts began detailing and investigating the various posts. The authors of the worst atrocities will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their heroism in criminal cases.

Why is it important to remain silent at the right time and not demonize the shooter? Since yesterday, we have registered several specific cases of people who are (allegedly) inspired by the terrible act and want to follow it,” police said.

‘We will respond immediately, if you report something like this in your area, please call 158.’

The update added: ‘As of today, we have taken nationwide PREVENTIVE measures regarding soft targets and schools.

“We don’t have any information about a specific threat and it’s really a prevention – a signal that we are here and we are ready.”

Later, at a press conference, the director of the Prague Police said they had arrested one person due to messages posted online.

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said investigators do not suspect a link with any extremist ideology or groups.

Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said police believe the gunman killed his father earlier on Thursday in his hometown of Hostoun, just west of Prague, and that he also intended to kill himself. He didn’t work it out.

Later on Thursday, Mr. Vondrasek said that based on a house search, the gunman was also suspected of killing another man and his two-month-old daughter on December 15 in Prague.

The chief described the gunman as an excellent student – who studied history – with no criminal record, but provided no further information.

No official motivation has been released by authorities. However, it has been reported that Kozak himself was inspired by a school shooting in Russia earlier this month, in which a 14-year-old schoolgirl killed her classmates and then herself.

“I want to do a school shooting and possibly commit suicide. Alina Afanaskina helped me too much,” he allegedly wrote in Russian on December 10 about the school shooter in Bryansk, who killed two students before killing himself.

The chilling entry in what the writer called their “diary” about “life before the shooting” continued: “I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a maniac in the future.”

Just five days after the disturbing messages appeared online, a father and daughter were shot dead in Klanovice, a forest area outside Prague.

More than 250 police officers were sent to search the area and a helicopter with thermal imaging cameras was used to search the forest area, but the shooter was never found.

Shocked friends of the dead man said: ‘I remember him as an intern from the camp and from the tourist department. He was friendly and up for any joke.

‘After school he focused on himself and started playing a lot of sports. On that occasion he met his future wife.

‘This summer he told me how happy he is in his life. He said he had a beautiful wife, a child and much more on the way. What more can you ask for. He looked happy.

‘Who would do something like that?’

The police chief described the gunman as an excellent student with no criminal record, but provided no further information.

The gunman suffered “devastating injuries” but it was not clear whether he committed suicide or was shot dead in a shootout with officers, Mr. Vondrasek said, adding that “there was nothing to indicate he had an accomplice.”

The gunman legally owned multiple guns — police said Thursday he was heavily armed and had a lot of ammunition — and that what he did was “well thought out, a terrible act,” Vondrasek said.

The university authorities said they would tighten security in university premises with immediate effect.

“We mourn the loss of life of members of our university community, extend our deepest condolences to all the bereaved families, and our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragedy,” Charles University said in a statement.

The building where the shooting took place is located on Jan Palach Square, a busy tourist area in Prague’s Old Town.

It is just a few minutes’ walk from the picturesque Old Town Square, a major tourist attraction where a popular Christmas market attracts thousands of visitors.

The government quickly sought to allay concerns that the massacre was backed by foreign interests.

“There is no indication that it has anything to do with international terrorism,” Rakusan said.

“It is a terrible crime, something the Czech Republic has never experienced.”

Pavel Nedoma, the director of the nearby Rudolfinum Gallery, said he watched from a window as a person standing on a balcony of the building fired a gun.

Authorities evacuated everyone from the building and police said they were still searching the area, including the balcony, for explosives.

The building is part of the square and faces a bridge over the river with views of Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech presidency.

President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked” by what had happened and offered his condolences to the relatives of the victims, as well as the leaders of Germany, France and Slovakia, the European Union and Israel.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sent a condolence message.

She said, “The President and First Lady are praying for the families who have lost loved ones and for all others affected by this senseless act of violence.

“On behalf of the United States, we extend our condolences and wish the survivors of this tragic event a speedy recovery.”

The Czech government has declared Saturday a national day of mourning in honor of the shooting victims, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.

Previously, the country’s worst mass shooting occurred in 2015, when a gunman opened fire in the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod, killing eight people before fatally shooting himself.

This is the touching moment Meghan Markle called to check in on one of the families hardest hit by the tragedy that occurred in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022.

In a video showing a small portion of the phone call, Markle can be heard laughing as he talks to Irma Garcia’s sister. Irma, 46, was one of the teachers killed while protecting her students during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary.

“How are they doing?” Markle asks, referring to Irma’s children. “They actually asked to be left alone because it’s Father’s Day,” her sister responds, adding that she contacted them via text but was not bothered. The call took place on Father’s Day.

The tragedy of the Garcia family made headlines worldwide in the aftermath of the massacre. Two days after Irma was shot dead by gunman Salvador Ramos, her husband, Joe, died of a heart attack.

The couple had four children together, ranging in age from teenagers to twenty years old.

A total of 22 people, including the shooter, were shot dead in two classrooms on May 24, 2022.

The video was posted by Irma’s cousin, Johnny Martinez. “I’ve never posted this before, but it clearly needs to be seen. This is just a small part of the video of my mother on the phone with Meghan Markle checking on the family on Father’s Day,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

That was posted in response to a video that went viral showing Markle visiting a shrine set up for the victims two days after the shooting.

The poster of that video roundly criticized Markle, accusing her of bringing a camera crew and using the tragedy to “raise her profile and gain press.”

Accompanying the post was a note from the The director of the Center has made it very clear several times that this was not the case.’

In subsequent tweets, Martinez says he has “multiple videos” of his mother on the phone with Markle.

He adds that in the aftermath, the former Suits star sent his family gifts, “none of which were for the media.”

During her visit, Markle left a bouquet of white roses at a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse.

She also stopped at a community center in Uvalde that is hosting a blood drive, where she toured the facility and donated food, a volunteer there told DailyMail.com. “She didn’t want anyone to know who she was,” the person said at the time.

That was the case in 2023 reported that Markle and Prince Harry’s Archewell Foundation have raised $3 million to build a new park in Uvalde to honor the dead.

Joe and Irma Garcia were married for 24 years. A GoFundMe page for the family says he died “of a broken heart” after his wife’s murder.

“I truly believe that Joe died of a broken heart and that losing the love of his life of over thirty years was too much to bear,” said Irma’s cousin Debra Austin.

The couple’s nephew tweeted that he had died of “grief.”

“Please pray for our family. God, have mercy on us,” he said.

Survivors of the shooting have told how Irma and fellow teacher Eva Mireles, 44, died while shielding them from the gunman’s bullets.

“She died with children in her arms trying to protect them,” Martinez wrote on Twitter at the time.

“They weren’t just her students, they were her children too.”

Irma taught at Robb Elementary for 23 years and was previously named Teacher of the Year.

She was one of 19 teachers from the San Antonio area who were finalists for the 2019 Trinity University Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Irma taught third grade, specializing in social studies and ELAR, or English Language Arts and Reading.

‘I’m so excited to start this new school year!’ she wrote on the school district’s website before the start of the school year.

At the time of the shooting, the couple’s eldest son was at military training camp and their second eldest was a student at Texas State University.

Joe and son are seen in a Facebook photo holding a heart-shaped sign that reads “Proud Bobcat family,” a nod to the Texas State football team.

The Czech Republic declared a day of mourning on Saturday after a gunman killed 14 people in Prague in the worst mass shooting in the country’s history.

David Kozak, 24, killed 14 people and injured 25 – ten seriously – during the deadly rampage in which he attacked students and tourists from the balcony of Charles University’s philosophy building.

The Czech government has announced that tomorrow will be a day of mourning, with flags on official buildings flying at half-mast and people being asked to observe a minute’s silence at 12:00 noon (11:00 GMT).

Today, Charles University raised black flags in honor of the victims and canceled all lectures and events following the shooting.

People have been lighting candles outside the university’s medieval downtown headquarters since Thursday evening, and leaders from the nation’s universities planned to pay their respects there later Friday morning.

The gunman began his attack at 3pm yesterday and by 4pm police said he had been ‘eliminated’ after elite officers were seen storming the building.

Police opened fire on Kozak while he was still trying to shoot more victims, police President Martin Vondrášek said.

Extraordinary footage shows terrified students cowering on a ledge high on a balcony in an attempt to hide from the gunman after others were told to barricade themselves in classrooms.

It comes as Czech police said today that 13 of the 14 victims have been identified. The Interior Ministry said two UAE citizens and a Dutch national were among the injured.

Kozak murdered his father in his hometown of Hostoun before traveling the twenty kilometers to the Czech capital, where he began shooting people at random from the balcony of Charles University’s philosophy building.

The gunman legally owned multiple guns — police said Thursday he was heavily armed and had a lot of ammunition — and that what he did was “well thought out, a terrible act,” Vondrasek said.

He carried a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition, with the country’s interior minister saying that “if the police had not entered the building in time, the perpetrator would not have been lying dead on the roof and there would have been a lot happened’. more victims.’

In the run-up to his killing spree, Kozak is said to have kept a diary in Russian on the messaging app Telegram, writing in a chilling post: ‘I want to do a school shooting and possibly commit suicide.’

Last night it emerged that police are investigating whether Kozak may have murdered a 32-year-old father and his two-month-old daughter in Klanovice, near Prague. Hundreds of police officers combed the wooded area after the perpetrator disappeared, and authorities are currently investigating whether the two killings could be linked.

“I want to do a school shooting and possibly commit suicide. Alina Afanaskina helped me too much,” he allegedly wrote on December 10 about the school shooter in Bryansk, who killed two students before committing suicide.

The chilling entry in what the writer called their “diary” about “life before the shooting” continued: “I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a maniac in the future.”

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the “lone gunman… has wasted many lives, especially young people.”

“There is no justification for this heinous act,” he added.

Although mass gun violence is unusual in the Czech Republic, the country has been shocked by a few cases in recent years.

A 63-year-old man shot dead seven men and a woman in 2015 before killing himself at a restaurant in the southeastern city of Uhersky Brod.

In 2019, a man killed six people in the waiting room of a hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava, while another woman died days later. The man shot himself about three hours after the attack.

Although mass gun violence is unusual in the Czech Republic, the country has been shocked by a few cases in recent years.

A 63-year-old man shot dead seven men and a woman in 2015 before killing himself at a restaurant in the southeastern city of Uhersky Brod.

In 2019, a man killed six people in the waiting room of a hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava, while another woman died days later. The man shot himself about three hours after the attack.

The first victim of the mass shooting in Prague has been identified as a University director who spent her career dedicated to studying the history of music in the Czech Republic.

Lenka Hlávková, who was the director of the Institute of Music Science at the University’s philosophy department, was identified as one of the 14 people murdered by gunman David Kozak, 24. 

The Institute shared a picture of the mother-of-two while confirming her death in the ‘cruel’ attack. Her colleagues said they were ‘utterly devastated’ that Lenka, who studied the history of music in the Czech Republic, had been ‘senselessly’ murdered.

Kozak killed 14 people and injured 25 – ten seriously – during the deadly rampage in which he targeted students and tourists from the balcony of the Charles University’s philosophy building.

It comes as tense police bodycam footage showed officers sprinting through the building and racing up the stairs towards the top floors in a bid to find Kozak who was taking shot after shot at this victims from the balcony. 

The brave elite cops barged through a door to the balcony and footage shows Kozak’s body lying on the floor. Police said Kozak, knowing he was surrounded by cops, had killed himself with his shotgun after throwing his elite long-range rifle off the balcony. 

Harrowing video shows other police officers discovering injured students inside a classroom and desperately trying to stem their blood loss before evacuating them from the building. 

It comes as sickening footage emerged of Kozak took shot after shot at his victims from the balcony of the university building as a hero shouted ‘shoot here you f***er’ in a bid to distract him.

Kozak, who was a Master’s student of history at the university, is seen standing on the balcony and aiming his powerful ZEV-30 rifle at people below, picking his victims off one by one.

Kozak, wearing all black, can be seen walking calmly along the balcony and taking aim at the terrified students fleeing the university and tourists who had been gathered in the popular square below.

On the ground, a heroic man, a journalist, can be heard screaming ‘shoot me you f***er’ in a desperate and valiant bid to distract the shooter and save the lives of others, reports newspaper Blesk. 

But the 24-year-old ignores his pleas and continues to fire in quick succession at his victims below as the man frantically tells police where exactly Kozak is located on the balcony through a walkie-talkie, urging them to ‘take a shot’ at the shooter.

The shooter pauses again, taking cover underneath a Ukrainian flag, before walking to the edge of the balcony and resting his rifle – which has the power to pierce through body armour – on the bannister. He spots victims fleeing and fires two shots in quick succession as the heroic man screams from below.

The sickening footage shows just how calm and composed the shooter was as he unleashed terror in the mass shooting – the worst in the Czech Republic’s modern history – as he shot dead 14 victims.

The gunman began his attack at 3pm yesterday and by 4pm, police said he had been ‘eliminated’ after elite cops were seen storming the building. The cops opened fire at Kozak while he was still trying to shoot more victims, Police President Martin Vondrášek said. 

Other extraordinary images show terrified students cowering on a ledge high up on a balcony in a bid to hide from the gunman after others were told to barricade themselves in classrooms. 

It comes as the Czech police said today that 13 out of the 14 victims have been identified, with the government announcing a day of mourning on Saturday. The Interior ministry said there were two UAE citizens and one Dutch person among the injured.

Kozak murdered his father in his hometown of Hostoun before travelling the 13 miles into the Czech capital where he began randomly shooting people from the balcony of Charles University’s philosophy building. 

The shooter legally owned several guns – police said he was heavily armed Thursday and was carrying a lot of ammunition – and that what he did was ‘well thought out, a horrible act,’ Vondrasek said. 

He had a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition with him, with the country’s Interior Minister saying that ‘if the police hadn’t entered the building in time, the perpetrator wouldn’t have been dead on the roof and there would have been a lot more victims.’

In the lead up to his killing spree, Kozak is thought to have kept a diary in Russian on messaging app Telegram, writing in one chilling post: ‘I want to do a school shooting and possibly suicide.’

It emerged last night that police are investigating whether Kozak may have killed a father, 32, and his two-month-old daughter in Klanovice, near Prague. Hundreds of police combed the wooded area after the perpetrator disappeared, and authorities are currently probing whether the two killing sprees could be linked.

Thursday’s massacre is the Czech Republic’s worst ever mass shooting, and the gunman is believed to have been inspired by a school shooting carried out by 14-year-old schoolgirl in Russia earlier this month.

‘I want to do school shooting and possibly suicide, Alina Afanaskina helped me too much,’ he allegedly wrote on December 10 of the Bryansk school shooter, who killed two students before taking her own life. 

The chilling post in what the writer called their ‘diary’ about ‘life before the shooting’ went on: ‘I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a maniac in the future.’ 

Just five days after the disturbing posts appeared online, a father and baby girl were shot dead in Klanovice, a forest area outside of Prague.

More than 250 police were sent to search the area and a helicopter with thermal imaging was used to scour the woodland area, but the gunman was never found.

At the time, police spokesman Jan Rybanský told iDNES.cz.: ‘The case is being worked on by a team of several dozen of the most experienced criminologists, who were also reinforced by colleagues from the Office of the Criminal Police Service and Investigations of the Police Presidium.’

Horrified friends of the dead man said: ‘I remember him as a trainee from the camp and from the tourist section. He was friendly and up for every joke.

‘After school, he focused on himself and started playing a lot of sports. On that occasion he met his future wife.

‘This summer he talked about how happy he is in his life. He said he had a beautiful wife, a child and more on the way. What else could you wish for. He looked happy.

‘Who would do such a thing’.

As investigations into the double murder continue, Czech police now have to assess how a mass killing was able to take place just days later, a half an hour drive away in Prague – and whether the two attacks were both carried out by Kozak.

‘As far as Klanovicky les is concerned, it is not known that the victims were in any way connected to the perpetrator. I am convinced that the victims were completely randomly selected by a person without any criminal history,’ police spokesman Martin Vondráček said on Thursday night.

Vondráček revealed at the press conference: ‘We are working very seriously with the fact that the attacker from the Faculty of Philosophy is also responsible for the two victims from the end of last week in Klanovicky les.’

Horrific scenes unfolded at the historic Charles University campus on Thursday, with pictures showing the gunman dressed in black aiming a rifle at people below while standing on top of the prestigious college’s Faculty of Arts building.

Terrified students and tourists were seen fleeing while others crouched beneath a window ledge on the high building as gunshots rang out in what is one of Europe’s top tourist hotspots. Reports have suggested that one person died after falling from a building as they took cover.

There are fears that tourists could be among those killed or the 25 injured in today’s shooting, with police working to identify the victims and saying they will contact embassies with updates in the event of foreign nationals being affected in the atrocity.

Elite cops were seen storming the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the gunman was a student, with police saying the gunman had been ‘eliminated’ at 4pm – an hour after the deadly carnage began.

Police said the gunman’s body had been found in the area and suggested he had taken his own life when cops closed in on him – though cops did say they had fired at him.

‘Due to the devastating injury sustained by the suspect, we are unable to confirm his identity,’ Vondráček said. ‘From the information available to me, there should have been a suicide, however, the police also used a service weapon.’ 

He added that the death toll could have been much higher: ‘There was a large quantity of ammunition and if the police hadn’t entered the building in time, the perpetrator wouldn’t have been dead on the roof and there would have been a lot more victims.’ 

Dramatic video showed terrified crowds of tourists and locals sprinting across the famous Charles Bridge – one of Europe’s top tourist sites – after they heard the sickening sound of gunshots in the city.

The gunman fired at his victims one by one from the top of the university building – two hours after he is said to have murdered his father in the town of Hostoun. 

In separate footage, people were seen running with their hands raised in the air from the prestigious University’s Faculty of Arts building in the capital, as armed police officers swooped in. 

The shooting started at 3pm and police said the gunman was ‘eliminated’ at 4pm after elite cops were seen storming the building. At least 14 people were killed in the shooting and more than 20 were injured – 11 seriously, Prague’s emergency services said. 

British tourist Joe Hyland, who was on his first holiday abroad with his group of friends, said they were worried there could have been multiple attackers, and rushed to text their loved ones in case the worst happened.

‘As we got onto the tube and we don’t know how many attackers there are and we don’t know what the attackers are, so it the tube the best place or the worst place to go? So we decided to ring our parents to say we loved them and call our friends,’ he told the BBC.

Speaking from Prague, his friend added: ‘It’s our first holiday as us boys. When something like that happens you call you loved ones because you don’t know in the confusion if you are going to be able to speak to them.’

A British father and daughter also witnessed the chaos unfold. The unnamed man told The Sun: ‘My daughter said, ‘Dad, look up there, there’s a guy on the roof’. And all of a sudden it just went mental, it sounded like a load of firecrackers. 

‘I would have said about 30 people got shot. There was a guy lying dead on the right hand side of the square. He was shot in the chest.’

A faculty member of the university, Zora Hesova, said people were locked in classrooms inside the building as armed police officers descended on the scene. 

Police later said they killed the gunman after they stormed the building and have evacuated everyone who was trapped inside.

‘The gunman was eliminated!!!’ police said on X, formerly Twitter. ‘The building is currently being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of wounded people on the scene.’ 

Extraordinary images show the gunman, who was dressed in black, standing on the roof of the faculty building and pointing his rifle with a scope mounted on top at people down below. 

Petr Nedoma, the director of the Rudolfinum – a concert hall on the square across from the Faculty of Arts – told Czech broadcaster CT24: ‘Upstairs on the walkway of the Faculty of Arts, I saw a man standing with a gun in his hand and shooting towards the Mánes bridge with certain delays. 

‘I watched what was happening from inside the Rudolfinum for a long time. I stayed in the building and was by the windows for as much cover as possible.’

Nedoma added: ‘Then he put his hands up and threw the gun towards the road, it remained lying by the philosophy faculty. Then a lot of people appeared upstairs, I don’t know if it was the police. 

‘I left the window and watched the police evacuate people from the Faculty of Philosophy, taking them away with their hands behind their heads in different directions, a large number of cars, people running around.’ 

Terrified teachers and students at the Charles University Faculty of Arts were instructed to lock themselves in classrooms before they were evacuated.

Klara, a student, told news site iDnes.cz  she was among those who police evacuated from the building.

‘It was terribly scary, there were a lot of policemen everywhere, who were shouting at us with submachine guns, telling us to run outside,’ she said.

An email sent to staff and students at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University had said a shooter was in one of its buildings and had told staff to ‘stay put’.

‘Don’t go anywhere, if you’re in the offices, lock them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights,’ the email said. 

One student, Deda Mrazek, said she was in the university’s library when the gunman began shooting at his victims. 

Sharing a picture of students hiding in the back of a computer lab, Deda wrote: ‘I am OK. I was in the library at the time of the shooting. 

‘They sent us to the back of the computer lab where there are no windows. Word has now spread that the gunman is dead.’ 

She said as soon as they heard the gunman had been killed, the terrified students all called their families to say that they were safe. 

The police have sealed off the square and the area adjacent to the university building, which is located in a busy part of town that has a popular street leading tourists to Old Town Square 

‘According to preliminary information, the shooter himself should be dead, there are dead and wounded on site, I will not speculate now about the final number,’ Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on Czech Television.

Rakusan added ‘no other gunman has been confirmed’ and called on people to follow police instructions. 

Police in the Czech Republic’s capital have urged residents to shelter inside and avoid the area due to the shooting. 

President Petr Pavel tweeted: ‘I am shocked by the events at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.

‘I would like to express my deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims that the shooting claimed. 

‘I want to thank the citizens for respecting the instructions of the security forces and providing maximum cooperation.’

The British Embassy in Prague has urged people in the city, which is popular with tourists, to avoid the around the Charles University and the Faculty of Arts. 

Prime Minister Petr Fiala cancelled his trip to the east of the country and was en route to Prague, he said on X.

Gun crime is relatively rare in the Czech Republic. In December 2019, a 42-year-old gunman killed six people at a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself, police said.

In 2015, a man fatally shot eight people and then killed himself at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.

The gunman who unleashed terror on Prague took shot after shot at his victims from the balcony of a top university building as a hero shouted ‘shoot here you f***er’ in a bid to distract him, chilling footage has revealed.

David Kozak, 24, killed 14 people and injured 25 – ten seriously – during the deadly rampage in which he targeted students and tourists from the balcony of the Charles University’s philosophy building.

Sickening video has now emerged of Kozak, who was a Master’s student of history at the university, standing on the balcony and aiming his powerful ZEV-30 rifle at people below, picking his victims off one by one.

Kozak, wearing all black, can be seen walking calmly along the balcony and taking aim at the terrified students fleeing the university and tourists who had been gathered in the popular square below.

On the ground, a heroic man, believed to be a journalist, can be heard screaming ‘shoot me you f***er’ in a desperate and valiant bid to distract the shooter and save the lives of others, reports newspaper Blesk. 

But the 24-year-old ignores his pleas and continues to fire in quick succession at his victims below as the man frantically tells police where exactly Kozak is located on the balcony through a walkie-talkie, urging them to ‘take a shot’ at the shooter.

The shooter pauses again, taking cover underneath a Ukrainian flag, before walking to the edge of the balcony and resting his rifle – which has the power to pierce through body armour – on the bannister. He spots victims fleeing and fires two shots in quick succession as the heroic man screams from below.

The sickening footage shows just how calm and composed the shooter was as he unleashed terror in the mass shooting – the worst in the Czech Republic’s modern history – as he shot dead 14 victims.

The gunman began his attack at 3pm yesterday and by 4pm, police said he had been ‘eliminated’ after elite cops were seen storming the building. The cops opened fire at Kozak while he was still trying to shoot more victims, Police President Martin Vondrášek said. 

Other extraordinary images show terrified students cowering on a ledge high up on a balcony in a bid to hide from the gunman after others were told to barricade themselves in classrooms. 

It comes as the Czech police said today that 13 out of the 14 victims have been identified, with the government announcing a day of mourning on Saturday. The Interior ministry said there were two UAE citizens and one Dutch person among the injured.

Kozak murdered his father in his hometown of Hostoun before travelling the 13 miles into the Czech capital where he began randomly shooting people from the balcony of Charles University’s philosophy building. 

The shooter legally owned several guns – police said he was heavily armed Thursday and was carrying a lot of ammunition – and that what he did was ‘well thought out, a horrible act,’ Vondrasek said. 

He had a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition with him, with the country’s Interior Minister saying that ‘if the police hadn’t entered the building in time, the perpetrator wouldn’t have been dead on the roof and there would have been a lot more victims.’

In the lead up to his killing spree, Kozak is thought to have kept a diary in Russian on messaging app Telegram, writing in one chilling post: ‘I want to do a school shooting and possibly suicide.’

It emerged last night that police are investigating whether Kozak may have killed a father, 32, and his two-month-old daughter in Klanovice, near Prague. Hundreds of police combed the wooded area after the perpetrator disappeared, and authorities are currently probing whether the two killing sprees could be linked.

Thursday’s massacre is the Czech Republic’s worst ever mass shooting, and the gunman is believed to have been inspired by a school shooting carried out by 14-year-old schoolgirl in Russia earlier this month.

‘I want to do school shooting and possibly suicide, Alina Afanaskina helped me too much,’ he allegedly wrote on December 10 of the Bryansk school shooter, who killed two students before taking her own life. 

The chilling post in what the writer called their ‘diary’ about ‘life before the shooting’ went on: ‘I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a maniac in the future.’ 

Just five days after the disturbing posts appeared online, a father and baby girl were shot dead in Klanovice, a forest area outside of Prague.

More than 250 police were sent to search the area and a helicopter with thermal imaging was used to scour the woodland area, but the gunman was never found.

At the time, police spokesman Jan Rybanský told iDNES.cz.: ‘The case is being worked on by a team of several dozen of the most experienced criminologists, who were also reinforced by colleagues from the Office of the Criminal Police Service and Investigations of the Police Presidium.’

Horrified friends of the dead man said: ‘I remember him as a trainee from the camp and from the tourist section. He was friendly and up for every joke.

‘After school, he focused on himself and started playing a lot of sports. On that occasion he met his future wife.

‘This summer he talked about how happy he is in his life. He said he had a beautiful wife, a child and more on the way. What else could you wish for. He looked happy.

‘Who would do such a thing’.

As investigations into the double murder continue, Czech police now have to assess how a mass killing was able to take place just days later, a half an hour drive away in Prague – and whether the two attacks were both carried out by Kozak.

‘As far as Klanovicky les is concerned, it is not known that the victims were in any way connected to the perpetrator. I am convinced that the victims were completely randomly selected by a person without any criminal history,’ police spokesman Martin Vondráček said on Thursday night.

Vondráček revealed at the press conference: ‘We are working very seriously with the fact that the attacker from the Faculty of Philosophy is also responsible for the two victims from the end of last week in Klanovicky les.’

Horrific scenes unfolded at the historic Charles University campus on Thursday, with pictures showing the gunman dressed in black aiming a rifle at people below while standing on top of the prestigious college’s Faculty of Arts building.

Terrified students and tourists were seen fleeing while others crouched beneath a window ledge on the high building as gunshots rang out in what is one of Europe’s top tourist hotspots. Reports have suggested that one person died after falling from a building as they took cover.

There are fears that tourists could be among those killed or the 25 injured in today’s shooting, with police working to identify the victims and saying they will contact embassies with updates in the event of foreign nationals being affected in the atrocity.

Elite cops were seen storming the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the gunman was a student, with police saying the gunman had been ‘eliminated’ at 4pm – an hour after the deadly carnage began.

Police said the gunman’s body had been found in the area and suggested he had taken his own life when cops closed in on him – though cops did say they had fired at him.

‘Due to the devastating injury sustained by the suspect, we are unable to confirm his identity,’ Vondráček said. ‘From the information available to me, there should have been a suicide, however, the police also used a service weapon.’ 

He added that the death toll could have been much higher: ‘There was a large quantity of ammunition and if the police hadn’t entered the building in time, the perpetrator wouldn’t have been dead on the roof and there would have been a lot more victims.’ 

Dramatic video showed terrified crowds of tourists and locals sprinting across the famous Charles Bridge – one of Europe’s top tourist sites – after they heard the sickening sound of gunshots in the city.

The gunman fired at his victims one by one from the top of the university building – two hours after he is said to have murdered his father in the town of Hostoun. 

In separate footage, people were seen running with their hands raised in the air from the prestigious University’s Faculty of Arts building in the capital, as armed police officers swooped in. 

The shooting started at 3pm and police said the gunman was ‘eliminated’ at 4pm after elite cops were seen storming the building. At least 14 people were killed in the shooting and more than 20 were injured – 11 seriously, Prague’s emergency services said. 

British tourist Joe Hyland, who was on his first holiday abroad with his group of friends, said they were worried there could have been multiple attackers, and rushed to text their loved ones in case the worst happened.

‘As we got onto the tube and we don’t know how many attackers there are and we don’t know what the attackers are, so it the tube the best place or the worst place to go? So we decided to ring our parents to say we loved them and call our friends,’ he told the BBC.

Speaking from Prague, his friend added: ‘It’s our first holiday as us boys. When something like that happens you call you loved ones because you don’t know in the confusion if you are going to be able to speak to them.’

A British father and daughter also witnessed the chaos unfold. The unnamed man told The Sun: ‘My daughter said, ‘Dad, look up there, there’s a guy on the roof’. And all of a sudden it just went mental, it sounded like a load of firecrackers. 

‘I would have said about 30 people got shot. There was a guy lying dead on the right hand side of the square. He was shot in the chest.’

A faculty member of the university, Zora Hesova, said people were locked in classrooms inside the building as armed police officers descended on the scene. 

Police later said they killed the gunman after they stormed the building and have evacuated everyone who was trapped inside.

‘The gunman was eliminated!!!’ police said on X, formerly Twitter. ‘The building is currently being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of wounded people on the scene.’ 

Extraordinary images show the gunman, who was dressed in black, standing on the roof of the faculty building and pointing his rifle with a scope mounted on top at people down below. 

Petr Nedoma, the director of the Rudolfinum – a concert hall on the square across from the Faculty of Arts – told Czech broadcaster CT24: ‘Upstairs on the walkway of the Faculty of Arts, I saw a man standing with a gun in his hand and shooting towards the Mánes bridge with certain delays. 

‘I watched what was happening from inside the Rudolfinum for a long time. I stayed in the building and was by the windows for as much cover as possible.’

Nedoma added: ‘Then he put his hands up and threw the gun towards the road, it remained lying by the philosophy faculty. Then a lot of people appeared upstairs, I don’t know if it was the police. 

‘I left the window and watched the police evacuate people from the Faculty of Philosophy, taking them away with their hands behind their heads in different directions, a large number of cars, people running around.’ 

Terrified teachers and students at the Charles University Faculty of Arts were instructed to lock themselves in classrooms before they were evacuated.

Klara, a student, told news site iDnes.cz  she was among those who police evacuated from the building.

‘It was terribly scary, there were a lot of policemen everywhere, who were shouting at us with submachine guns, telling us to run outside,’ she said.

An email sent to staff and students at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University had said a shooter was in one of its buildings and had told staff to ‘stay put’.

‘Don’t go anywhere, if you’re in the offices, lock them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights,’ the email said. 

One student, Deda Mrazek, said she was in the university’s library when the gunman began shooting at his victims. 

Sharing a picture of students hiding in the back of a computer lab, Deda wrote: ‘I am OK. I was in the library at the time of the shooting. 

‘They sent us to the back of the computer lab where there are no windows. Word has now spread that the gunman is dead.’ 

She said as soon as they heard the gunman had been killed, the terrified students all called their families to say that they were safe. 

The police have sealed off the square and the area adjacent to the university building, which is located in a busy part of town that has a popular street leading tourists to Old Town Square 

‘According to preliminary information, the shooter himself should be dead, there are dead and wounded on site, I will not speculate now about the final number,’ Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on Czech Television.

Rakusan added ‘no other gunman has been confirmed’ and called on people to follow police instructions. 

Police in the Czech Republic’s capital have urged residents to shelter inside and avoid the area due to the shooting. 

President Petr Pavel tweeted: ‘I am shocked by the events at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.

‘I would like to express my deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims that the shooting claimed. 

‘I want to thank the citizens for respecting the instructions of the security forces and providing maximum cooperation.’

The British Embassy in Prague has urged people in the city, which is popular with tourists, to avoid the around the Charles University and the Faculty of Arts. 

Prime Minister Petr Fiala cancelled his trip to the east of the country and was en route to Prague, he said on X.

Gun crime is relatively rare in the Czech Republic. In December 2019, a 42-year-old gunman killed six people at a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself, police said.

In 2015, a man fatally shot eight people and then killed himself at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.

The gunman who unleashed terror on Prague is now suspected of shooting dead a man and his newborn baby in a ‘random’ attack at a forest near the Czech capital last week, police have revealed.

David Kozak, 24, killed 14 people and injured 25 during a rampage in which he targeted students at his university in downtown Prague, police said, adding that he was shot dead after carrying out the horrific attack.

Kozak murdered his father in the town of Hostoun before heading into the Czech capital where he began randomly shooting people from the balcony of Charles University Arts faculty.

He had a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition with him, with the country’s Interior Minister saying that ‘if the police hadn’t entered the building in time, the perpetrator wouldn’t have been dead on the roof and there would have been a lot more victims.’

In the lead up to his killing spree, Kozak is thought to have kept a diary in Russian on messaging app Telegram, writing in one chilling post: ‘I want to do a school shooting and possibly suicide.’

Now it has emerged that police are investigating whether Kozak may have killed a father, 32, and his two-month-old daughter in Klanovice, near Prague. Hundreds of police combed the wooded area after the perpetrator disappeared, and authorities are currently probing whether the two killing sprees could be linked.

Thursday’s massacre is the Czech Republic’s worst ever mass shooting, and the gunman is believed to have been inspired by a school shooting carried out by 14-year-old schoolgirl in Russia earlier this month.

‘I want to do school shooting and possibly suicide, Alina Afanaskina helped me too much,’ he allegedly wrote on December 10 of the Bryansk school shooter, who killed two students before taking her own life. 

The chilling post in what the writer called their ‘diary’ about ‘life before the shooting’ went on: ‘I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a maniac in the future.’ 

Just five days after the disturbing posts appeared online, a father and baby girl were shot dead in Klanovice, a forest area outside of Prague.

More than 250 police were sent to search the area and a helicopter with thermal imaging was used to scour the woodland area, but the gunman was never found.

At the time, police spokesman Jan Rybanský told iDNES.cz.: ‘The case is being worked on by a team of several dozen of the most experienced criminologists, who were also reinforced by colleagues from the Office of the Criminal Police Service and Investigations of the Police Presidium.’

Horrified friends of the dead man said: ‘I remember him as a trainee from the camp and from the tourist section. He was friendly and up for every joke.

‘After school, he focused on himself and started playing a lot of sports. On that occasion he met his future wife.

‘This summer he talked about how happy he is in his life. He said he had a beautiful wife, a child and more on the way. What else could you wish for. He looked happy.

‘Who would do such a thing’.

As investigations into the double murder continue, Czech police now have to assess how a mass killing was able to take place just days later, a half an hour drive away in Prague – and whether the two attacks were both carried out by Kozak.

‘As far as Klanovicky les is concerned, it is not known that the victims were in any way connected to the perpetrator. I am convinced that the victims were completely randomly selected by a person without any criminal history,’ police spokesman Martin Vondráček said on Thursday night.

Vondráček revealed at the press conference: ‘We are working very seriously with the fact that the attacker from the Faculty of Philosophy is also responsible for the two victims from the end of last week in Klanovicky les.’

Horrific scenes unfolded at the historic Charles University campus on Thursday, with pictures showing the gunman dressed in black aiming a rifle at people below while standing on top of the prestigious college’s Faculty of Arts building.

Terrified students and tourists were seen fleeing while others crouched beneath a window ledge on the high building as gunshots rang out in what is one of Europe’s top tourist hotspots. Reports have suggested that one person died after falling from a building as they took cover.

There are fears that tourists could be among those killed or the 25 injured in today’s shooting, with police working to identify the victims and saying they will contact embassies with updates in the event of foreign nationals being affected in the atrocity.

Elite cops were seen storming the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the gunman was a student, with police saying the gunman had been ‘eliminated’ at 4pm – an hour after the deadly carnage began.

Police said the gunman’s body had been found in the area and suggested he had taken his own life when cops closed in on him – though cops did say they had fired at him. 

‘Due to the devastating injury sustained by the suspect, we are unable to confirm his identity,’ Vondráček said. ‘From the information available to me, there should have been a suicide, however, the police also used a service weapon.’ 

He added that the death toll could have been much higher: ‘There was a large quantity of ammunition and if the police hadn’t entered the building in time, the perpetrator wouldn’t have been dead on the roof and there would have been a lot more victims.’ 

Dramatic video showed terrified crowds of tourists and locals sprinting across the famous Charles Bridge – one of Europe’s top tourist sites – after they heard the sickening sound of gunshots in the city.

The gunman fired at his victims one by one from the top of the university building – two hours after he is said to have murdered his father in the town of Hostoun. 

In separate footage, people were seen running with their hands raised in the air from the prestigious University’s Faculty of Arts building in the capital, as armed police officers swooped in. 

The shooting started at 3pm and police said the gunman was ‘eliminated’ at 4pm after elite cops were seen storming the building. At least 14 people were killed in the shooting and more than 20 were injured – 11 seriously, Prague’s emergency services said. 

Other extraordinary images show terrified students cowering on a ledge high up on a balcony in a bid to hide from the gunman after others were told to barricade themselves in classrooms. 

British tourist Joe Hyland, who was on his first holiday abroad with his group of friends, said they were worried there could have been multiple attackers, and rushed to text their loved ones in case the worst happened.

‘As we got onto the tube and we don’t know how many attackers there are and we don’t know what the attackers are, so it the tube the best place or the worst place to go? So we decided to ring our parents to say we loved them and call our friends,’ he told the BBC.

Speaking from Prague, his friend added: ‘It’s our first holiday as us boys. When something like that happens you call you loved ones because you don’t know in the confusion if you are going to be able to speak to them.’

A British father and daughter also witnessed the chaos unfold. The unnamed man told The Sun: ‘My daughter said, ‘Dad, look up there, there’s a guy on the roof’. And all of a sudden it just went mental, it sounded like a load of firecrackers. 

‘I would have said about 30 people got shot. There was a guy lying dead on the right hand side of the square. He was shot in the chest.’

A faculty member of the university, Zora Hesova, said people were locked in classrooms inside the building as armed police officers descended on the scene. 

Police later said they killed the gunman after they stormed the building and have evacuated everyone who was trapped inside.

‘The gunman was eliminated!!!’ police said on X, formerly Twitter. ‘The building is currently being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of wounded people on the scene.’ 

Extraordinary images show the gunman, who was dressed in black, standing on the roof of the faculty building and pointing his rifle with a scope mounted on top at people down below. 

Petr Nedoma, the director of the Rudolfinum – a concert hall on the square across from the Faculty of Arts – told Czech broadcaster CT24: ‘Upstairs on the walkway of the Faculty of Arts, I saw a man standing with a gun in his hand and shooting towards the Mánes bridge with certain delays. 

‘I watched what was happening from inside the Rudolfinum for a long time. I stayed in the building and was by the windows for as much cover as possible.’

Nedoma added: ‘Then he put his hands up and threw the gun towards the road, it remained lying by the philosophy faculty. Then a lot of people appeared upstairs, I don’t know if it was the police. 

‘I left the window and watched the police evacuate people from the Faculty of Philosophy, taking them away with their hands behind their heads in different directions, a large number of cars, people running around.’ 

Terrified teachers and students at the Charles University Faculty of Arts were instructed to lock themselves in classrooms before they were evacuated.

Klara, a student, told news site iDnes.cz  she was among those who police evacuated from the building.

‘It was terribly scary, there were a lot of policemen everywhere, who were shouting at us with submachine guns, telling us to run outside,’ she said.

An email sent to staff and students at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University had said a shooter was in one of its buildings and had told staff to ‘stay put’.

‘Don’t go anywhere, if you’re in the offices, lock them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights,’ the email said. 

One student, Deda Mrazek, said she was in the university’s library when the gunman began shooting at his victims. 

Sharing a picture of students hiding in the back of a computer lab, Deda wrote: ‘I am OK. I was in the library at the time of the shooting. 

‘They sent us to the back of the computer lab where there are no windows. Word has now spread that the gunman is dead.’ 

She said as soon as they heard the gunman had been killed, the terrified students all called their families to say that they were safe. 

The government said they will hold an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the shooting at 9pm. 

The police have sealed off the square and the area adjacent to the university building, which is located in a busy part of town that has a popular street leading tourists to Old Town Square 

‘According to preliminary information, the shooter himself should be dead, there are dead and wounded on site, I will not speculate now about the final number,’ Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on Czech Television.

Rakusan added ‘no other gunman has been confirmed’ and called on people to follow police instructions. 

Police in the Czech Republic’s capital have urged residents to shelter inside and avoid the area due to the shooting. 

President Petr Pavel tweeted: ‘I am shocked by the events at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.

‘I would like to express my deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims that the shooting claimed. 

‘I want to thank the citizens for respecting the instructions of the security forces and providing maximum cooperation.’

The British Embassy in Prague has urged people in the city, which is popular with tourists, to avoid the around the Charles University and the Faculty of Arts. 

Prime Minister Petr Fiala cancelled his trip to the east of the country and was en route to Prague, he said on X.

Gun crime is relatively rare in the Czech Republic. In December 2019, a 42-year-old gunman killed six people at a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself, police said.

In 2015, a man fatally shot eight people and then killed himself at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.