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Police have released bodycam footage of officers storming a university building during their response to a shooting in Prague which killed 14 people.

The footage shows armed officers entering a building and members of the public fleeing the scene at Charles University in Prague on Thursday.

The gunman – named in Czech media as 24-year-old David Kozak – opened fire in the philosophy department, where he was a student.

A map showing Jan Palach Square, where the shooting took place
Image:
A map showing Jan Palach Square, where the shooting took place

At a press conference today, Petr Matejcek, director of the police regional headquarters in Prague, said they received a call from someone who said they were going to “try and follow the example of the perpetrator and start shooting” but they managed to identify and detain them.

A police spokesperson also told reporters the gunman was believed to be on the upper floors of the building when armed officers arrived on Thursday. They later redirected their search to the roof.

Prague shooting
Prague shooting

Students at the university had barricaded themselves in their classrooms.

A perimeter was put in place around the university building, officers added at the press conference.

At one point the gunman shot and injured three people outside the building with a long-ranged weapon and the police fired back.

As the police approached his location he was armed with a shotgun and killed himself, Mr Matejcek added.

Officers found his body while searching the building.

Mr Matejcek added that “piles of ammunition” in “unbelievable quantities” were found at the scene and that the killing could have been worse without the speed of the police response.

Officers said they reached the scene within four minutes.

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Mourners remember victims of mass shooting

The gunman killed at least 14 people and injured 25.

Charles University named one of the victims as Lenka Hlavkova, director of the Institute of Music Science FF UK.

Three foreign nationals – two from Saudi Arabia and one from the Netherlands – were among those wounded, authorities have said.

No foreign nationals were among those killed, they added.

Read more:
What do we know so far about mass shooting?
Footage shows people hiding on ledge during manhunt

Links to other murders

Martin Vondrasek, Prague’s police chief, said the force believed the suspect killed his father earlier on Thursday in his hometown of Hostoun and had been planning to kill himself, too.

Based on a search of his home, he is also thought to be a suspect in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter last Friday.

It is the worst mass shooting the country has suffered.

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People hiding on ledge during shooting

Saturday will be a national day of mourning to honour the victims, Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said.

President Petr Pavel said there was “helpless anger at the unnecessary loss of so many young lives”.

“I would like to express my sincere condolences to all relatives of the victims, to all who were at this tragic incident,” he added.

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Four more arrests made over Louvre heist as £76m haul remains missing

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Four more arrests made over Louvre heist as £76m haul remains missing

Four more arrests have been made by French police investigating the Louvre museum heist.

Two men and two women from the Paris region were detained on Tuesday, prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.

Ms Beccuau’s statement did not say what role the quartet are suspected of having played in the robbery. The two men are aged 38 and 39, and the two women are aged 31 and 40.

They are being interrogated by police, who can hold them for questioning for 96 hours.

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Louvre: How ‘heist of the century’ unfolded

The latest arrests come after investigating magistrates filed preliminary charges against three men and one woman who were arrested last month.

Some of the French Crown Jewels, worth an estimated £76m, were stolen in the audacious October raid.

The haul – which included a diamond and emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels linked to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense, and Empress Eugenie’s pearl and diamond tiara – has not been recovered.

The heist was pulled off in mere minutes last month – and took place while the Louvre was open to visitors, raising doubts over the credibility of the world’s most-visited museum as a guardian for its priceless works.

On Sunday 19 October, two men used a stolen furniture lift to access the second floor Galerie d’Apollon.

They then cracked open display cases with angle grinders before escaping with their loot and fleeing on the back of two scooters driven by accomplices.

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Gallery closed as structure in ‘dire state’

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Moment thieves escape Louvre in jewel heist

The Paris prosecutor previously said the robbery appeared to be the work of small-time criminals rather than professional gangsters.

Speaking shortly after the heist, art detective Arthur Brand told Sky News that detectives faced a “race against time” to recover the stolen treasure.

“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” Mr Brand said. “The only thing they can do is melt the silver and gold down, dismantle the diamonds, try to cut them. That’s the way they will probably disappear forever.

“They [the police] have a week. If they catch the thieves, the stuff might still be there. If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled. It’s a race against time.”

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Zelenskyy is racing to beat Donald Trump’s peace plan deadline – but what will Russia do?

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Zelenskyy is racing to beat Donald Trump's peace plan deadline – but what will Russia do?

Washington woke up this morning to a flurry of developments on Ukraine.

It was the middle of the night in DC when a tweet dropped from Ukraine’s national security advisor, Rustem Umerov.

He said that the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”

He added that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would travel to America “at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump”.

Ukraine latest: ‘Delicate’ deal details must be sorted, White House says

By sunrise in Washington, a US official was using similar but not identical language to frame progress.

The official, speaking anonymously to US media, said that Ukraine had “agreed” to Trump’s peace proposal “with some minor details to be worked out”.

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In parallel, it’s emerged that talks have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The Americans claim to have met both Russian and Ukrainian officials there, though the Russians have not confirmed attendance.

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Peace deal ‘agreement’: What we know

“I have nothing to say. We are following the media reports,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, told Russian state media.

Trump is due to travel to his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago tonight, where he will remain until Sunday.

He set a deadline of Thursday – Thanksgiving – for some sort of agreement on his plan.

We know the plan has been changed from its original form, but it’s clear that Zelenskyy wants to be seen to agree to something quickly – that would go down well with President Trump.

Read more:
US hails ‘tremendous progress’ on Ukraine peace plan

In full: Europe’s 28-point counter proposal

My sense is that Zelenskyy will try to get to Mar-a-Lago as soon as he can. Before Thursday would be a push but would meet Trump’s deadline.

It will then be left for the Russians to state their position on the revised document.

All indications are that they will reject it. But maybe the secret Abu Dhabi talks will yield something.

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‘Dead’ Thai woman sent to crematorium wakes up in coffin

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'Dead' Thai woman sent to crematorium wakes up in coffin

A woman brought in for cremation at a Thai temple was found alive in her coffin.

The 65-year-old had been taken to Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok, after she appeared to stop breathing two days earlier.

Her family had travelled hundreds of miles with her body in the coffin and were preparing for her to be cremated.

However, moments before the service began a shocked temple manager, Pairat Soodthoop, said he heard a faint knock coming from inside the coffin.

Ambulance workers lift the woman in her coffin. Pic: AP
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Ambulance workers lift the woman in her coffin. Pic: AP

“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” he said.

“I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.”

The cremation was due to be live-streamed by the temple.

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Thairath, the nation’s best-selling newspaper, named the woman in question as Chonthirat Sakulkoo, and said she was brought in by her brother, Mongkol Sakulkoo.

The brother said she had been bedridden for about two years before her health deteriorated further and she became unresponsive, appearing to have stopped breathing, according to Mr Soodthoop

The woman in her coffin. Pic: AP
Image:
The woman in her coffin. Pic: AP

So, the brother placed her in a coffin and drove her 300 miles (500km) from their home in Phitsanulok province, in the north of the country, to the capital, Bangkok.

The Bangkok Post reported that the woman’s brother had been told by local officials that his sister had died.

The woman had wished to donate her organs to a hospital in the Thai capital, but her brother was turned away as he did not have the relevant paperwork.

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Funeral director on why she speaks to dead people

Instead, he went to the temple, which offers a free cremation service.

After the woman was discovered alive she was assessed and sent to Bang Yai Hospital, Thairath reported, where she was treated for hypoglycemia, before being released back to her brother.

The woman in her coffin. Pic: AP
Image:
The woman in her coffin. Pic: AP

Asked how he felt to learn that his sister is still alive, Mr Sakulkoo said he was indifferent, according to the newspaper.

Mr Soodthoop, said the temple would cover her medical expenses.

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