Mass shooting at Prague varsity,
at least 15 dead
Prague, Dec 2: An armed man opened fire in a university building in downtown Prague on Thursday, killing 10 people and sowing widespread panic with one of the Czech Republic’s worst mass shootings of its kind, police and the city’s rescue service said. The bloodshed took place in the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooter was a student, Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said. He has not been named publicly. Police gave no details about the victims or a possible motive for the shooting at the building located near the Vltava River in Jan Palach Square. Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said investigators do not suspect a link to any extemist ideology or groups. Pavel Nedoma, the director of the nearby Rudolfinum Gallery, said he saw from a window a person standing on a balcony of the building and shooting a gun. Police said they were still searching the area, including the balcony, for possible explosives. (AP)
B’desh police identify suspects behind train arson
Dhaka, Dec 21: Bangladesh police on Thursday said they have identified four suspects who set on fire an inter-district train that killed four passengers earlier this week in Dhaka, amid unrest over January 7 elections being boycotted by the main opposition BNP. Arsonists torched three compartments of the Dhaka-bound Mohanganj Express train near Tejgaon area on Tuesday in which one child and three others were killed. “We have found pictures of four suspected saboteurs and are now keeping a vigil on their movements,” Lt. Colonel Arif Mohiuddin Ahmed of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told reporters. Tuesday’s attack was the latest such incident in the last few weeks. (PTI)
12 killed in coal mine accident
in China
Beijing, Dec 21: At least 12 people were killed and 13 others injured in Jixi City in China’s Heilongjiang province, local authorities said. The accident, which involved a coal wagon, took place at 3.50 p.m. Wednesday in the Kunyuan coal mine in Hengshan District, Jixi, Xinhua news agency reported quoting information office of the district government. The cause of the accident is being investigated. (IANS)
Missing Indian student found
dead in London
London, Dec 21: The body of a 23-year-old Indian student, who went missing in the UK last week, has been found near a lake in East London, police said, appealing for assistance to help piece together his last known movements. Gurashman Singh Bhatia, a student of Loughborough University, was reported missing from Canary Wharf after a night out with friends on December 14. He was last seen on CCTV in the South Quay area at around 04:20hrs on December 15, according to the police. “Officers carried out extensive enquiries, including viewing CCTV, speaking to witnesses and analysing phone and financial data. Water searches were also carried out,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, police divers found his body in the water in South Quay. (IANS)