Thanks for joining us for our continuing coverage after yesterday's mass shooting in Prague.

You can keep up-to-date with our main news story here and you can read more reaction from the Czech Republic below:

• Students mourn in Prague, leaving small candles and laying flowers at the university gates
• A professor recounts what happened when the gunman entered the building as he was teaching a class
• Dramatic footage shows people leaping from a building ledge during the attack

This page was written by Kathryn Armstrong, Gianluca Avagnina, and Ece Goksedef. The editors were Sam Hancock and Andrew Humphrey.

Chris Lock from Bodmin Cornwall, who is in Prague with his Czech wife Milena, believes that he and his wife came close to being victims of the shooting.

“We were sightseeing in Prague yesterday. We saw the University, we walked towards it and went in.

“Then my wife said there’s a lovely café where the students go, let’s go and get a drink there,” Lock tells the BBC.

They were at the café for a few minutes but there were no tables available.

“As we stepped out, we were confronted by a police officer shouting ‘run away, run away now people are being shot’. And at the moment we saw panic stricken people running past and alongside us.

“We genuinely believe that if we had not decided to pop to the café we may have been victims,” Lock says.

“We consider ourselves to be very lucky.”

• 14 people are known to have died in yesterday's attack at a university in Prague, along with the gunman and his father in the worst mass shooting in Czech history. Another 25 people were wounded, but they are all expected to recover

• This morning, we heard from the Czech authorities that the gunman responsible for yesterday's massacre in Prague killed himself when he found he was surrounded by police
• Officials also said that the 24-year-old attacker stashed "piles of ammunition" in the corridors of Charles University, where the killings occurred
• Police are also investigating the possibility that the gunman was connected to the murders of two people in a forest near Prague last week.
• The victims include Lenka Hlavkova - head of the Institute of Musicology at Charles University - and several foreign nationals
• There is a day of national mourning tomorrow

Image source, .

Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan has praised the police response to the shooting, saying that the officers' reaction was "brilliant".

Speaking to the BBC's Sarah Rainsford, Rakušan added that the special forces were quick to the scene and all the best hospitals in Prague were ready to treat the wounded.

Challenged on whether police could have stopped the attack - as they had information about an armed man heading for the city centre - he responded that the police only knew about a possible suicide attempt, not a mass killer.

But what about the motive? Rakušan mentions "some personal problems, some kind of depression, disappointment... But we don’t have particular proof or info from him why he decided to do something so terrible".

He believes it "could have been much worse", as the gunman had a lot of weapons inside the university and "was really ready to kill a lot of people".

The police think he shot at random – although most of the dead and injured are female.

Image source, AFP

In Prague eyewitnesses and residents have been giving their reactions to the shooting.

“I feel strange, bad, horrible because I am a lecturer at the theatre faculty, and we were experiencing very strongly what was going on at the faculty of arts. It is horror; I cannot even speak," says Jirina Vackova, a Prague resident and a lecturer at theatre faculty.

Another resident of the city, Max Szitnicsenko, says that they want to believe that Prague is still safe despite the mass shooting.

Another Prague resident, who didn't give their name to Reuters news agency, hopes the attack won't be repeated. “It is not a pleasant feeling to walk on the street and think about what happened to someone who came to school absolutely carefree, thinking about Christmas coming in two days," they add.

Rakusan continues with an appeal to the media for caution in their reporting, as "sensationalising the case and picking individual details has a huge impact on the families of the victims".

He also points out that sensationalism could encourage replication, saying that he doesn't want to seek advice on how to repeat the attack on social media.

He urges journalists at the press conference not to give the gunamn any publicity: "Do not amplify his actions."

Image source, .

We're now hearing from Czech interior minister Vit Rakušan.

He warns of the misinformation being spread in this case, and says it leads to their hotlines getting blocked by the people panicking.

“This is reality, not some detective TV series," he says.

"We can only share information that is verified. As soon as we have more information we release it.”

We will shortly hear from the Prague police again as they hold a press conference with the Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan.

We understand it is due to be begin shortly, so stay with us as we will bring you the latest lines.

Image source, Reuters

Professor Radek Samik was teaching a class at Charles University when the gunman entered the building and started shooting indiscriminately.

Stuck inside a room on the first floor, he suddenly heard "very clear", single gunshots.

In a classroom on a higher floor was Jakob Weizman, a journalist and student at the university.

He was sitting a language exam in a small room, accompanied by one teacher, when he heard "gunshots" and "screaming".

Panicked, the two locked themselves in the classroom.

Five minutes later, the gunman tried to open their classroom door. "He was going through each classroom to see if people were there to shoot them," Weizman told the Guardian.

The pair were eventually evacuated from the building by police. "As we were walking out, there was just blood all over the faculty."

You can read the eyewitnesses' stories here.

The image below helps illustrate what we heard a little earlier from police in the press conference.

Officers said they had received received word that the attacker was on the roof of the building, home to Charles University's Arts Faculty on Jan Palach Square.

Police said they had active units both inside and outside the building, as the gunman was shooting at people from the roof.

The image below gives an idea of the size of the building, and the challenge the police faced to secure the building and evacuate sheltering students and the wounded.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has laid flowers outside Charles University's main building in Prague.

Fiala called the violence senseless and brutal, and has cancelled upcoming engagements in light of the "tragic events".

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, Facebook

As we mentioned earlier, the head of Charles University's musicology department, Lenka Hlavkova, has been named by the Czech government as one of those killed in Thursday's attack.

The department confirmed her death in a post on Facebook.

All of the dead are Czech and have been identified but further names have not yet been released.

Meanwhile, all 25 people injured in the attack are expected to survive.

They include three foreign nationals - one Dutch person and two from the United Arab Emirates.

What does the Czech law say about gun ownership?published at 11:47 Greenwich Mean Time 22 December 2023

11:47 GMT 22 December 2023

People in the Czech Republic can apply for a gun licence for purposes such as hunting, sport and self-defence, according to the gun violence prevention group GunPolicy.org., external

A background check has to be carried out first, considering factors such as mental health and criminal history.

As well as that, applicants have to pass an exam which tests their knowledge of firearm safety and regulation.

The minimum age for gun ownership is between 15 and 21, depending on the licence category of the gun.

Gun owners must re-apply and re-qualify for their gun licence every 10 years.

Czech police records, external show there are more than one million registered weapons in the country.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Eastern Europe correspondent in Prague

Image source, Reuters

As the darkness lifted in Prague on Friday, bright lights were still burning inside the Arts Faculty as they had through the night. The police cordon has now gone but the Charles University building is still a major crime scene.

The body of the 14th victim of the worst mass shooting in Czech history was only removed this morning.

Across town, at the gates of another university building, a shrine has been growing in memory of the 14 staff and students who were killed. People have been leaving small candles on the cobblestones in red glass holders and laying flowers.

The crowd huddled round in the sleet is mainly young, including many university and school students.

Lucy had brought a big bunch of white roses. "It's the least we can do," she said. She was at the law faculty when the shooting began, just a couple of hundred metres away.

Read more from Sarah in Prague here.

The police have given an update on yesterday's mass shooting. Here's what they said:

• When the police responded to the shooting, the attacker was on the roof. He then shot and killed himself after seeing that police were encircling him

• The force has identified all 14 victims of yesterday's attack, as well as the gunman
• The wounded who needed surgery have had it and are stable
• The police responded to criticism that about the speed of their response, saying there was four minutes between the first call and officers stepping into the building
• The director of Prague Police confirms that they saw piles of ammunition in the corridors
• The police says that their evidence suggests the university shooter was also responsible for the Klanovicky forest murders of last week, where a man and his daughter were killed

Authorities have now finished their statements and are taking questions from journalists.

We'll let you know if any new information is shared, but in the meantime we're going to craft a round-up of the key points we've just heard.

Stay tuned.

There's a bit more to bring you from Prague Police now, who also used the news conference to talk about the 25 people injured in Thursday's attack.

A representative of the city's rescue service says those that needed surgery have had it and are in a stable condition.

Among the injuries were gunshot wounds to limbs, chests and heads - the official says that thanks to the emergency services and hospitals, the survivors should be able to overcome them.

We mentioned at the start of that news conference that police had released bodycam footage from yesterday's attack.

It shows officers storming the university, and escorting students out with their hands in the air.

Take a look at some of the footage below:

Towards the end of the news conference, we hear from the director of Prague's ambulance rescue service.

He says that their evidence suggests the university shooter is the same perpetrator as in the Klanovicky forest murders - mentioned in our last two posts.

“But we are waiting for ballistic evidence to confirm that," he goes on. "Until then we will continue to investigate forest crime. We can't confirm 100% for now."

It's now the turn of the head of Prague Police's murder department, who says their best crime investigators were working on the forest murders before yesterday's shooting took place.

He confirms the shooter who carried out the Charles University attack was one of the suspects being investigated.

He apologises to the families of the victims, but says he believes police did "their best to prevent it".