Bratislava, 27 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) – The student who gunned down 14 people and injured a further 25 in Prague last week before killing himself admitted the murder of a man out walking with his baby a week previously, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

A letter admitting the motiveless double murder had been found during a search of the house in Hostoun to the west of Prague, where the gunman lived with his father, the spokesman told the Novinky.cz news website.

"We are unable at the moment to publish the remaining contents of the letter," the spokesman said. The investigation and gathering of evidence from witnesses could be jeopardized, he said.

Ballistic evidence from a firearm found in the house previously indicated that the student could have been responsible for this murder in woodland on Prague's outskirts as well. The crime had shocked Czech society before the Prague shooting on Thursday last week.

According to evidence currently available to police, the 24-year-old student murdered his father directly before the shooting from the main building of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University on Jan Palach Square.

He was able to assemble an arsenal of weapons legally without the authorities becoming suspicious.

Photo: MIA archive