Prague, Czech Republic - Czech police said Thursday a gunman had killed several people at a university building in central Prague before being "eliminated".

"The gunman was eliminated!!!" police said on X.

"The building is currently being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of wounded people on the scene," the statement added.

Czech media said the shooting had occurred at the Charles University Faculty of Arts, whose teachers and students were instructed to lock themselves up as police action was under way.

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The private Nova TV reported a blast and a gunman on the roof of the building in Prague's historic center.

Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told the public Czech TV, "no other gunman has been confirmed" and called on people to follow police instructions.

Police closed the area and asked people living nearby to stay at home.

The gunman shot dead ten people at a Prague university on Thursday, wounding about three dozen others before the police killed him, Prague's emergency services said.

"At the moment, I can say there are 11 dead people on the scene, including the gunman," spokeswoman Jana Postova told the public Czech TV.

The death toll in the shooting at the Prague Charles University rose to over 15, the Czech Republic's police chief said Thursday.

"More than 15 people have lost their lives, and at least 24 have been wounded," police chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters following the shooting, which happened in the city's historic center.

The shooting was not linked to international terrorism, the Czech government has said.

"There is no indication that this crime has any link to international terrorism," Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told reporters of the shooting at the Charles University's building.

"At this moment, I can confirm 14 victims of the horrible crime and 25 wounded, of which ten seriously," police chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters after the shooting.

All the victims were gunned down inside the building, he said. Media said at least some were the 24-year-old gunman's fellow students.

Vondrasek added the gunman, previously unknown to the police, had a "huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition" and that quick police action prevented far more serious carnage.

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Vondrasek said police started a search for the man before the mass shooting as his father had been found dead in the village of Hostoun west of Prague.

The gunman "left for Prague saying he wanted to kill himself," Vondrasek said. Police suggested earlier the gunman had killed his father.

Citing a probe into social media, Vondrasek said the gunman was inspired by a "similar case that happened in Russia" without going into details.

"At the moment, there is nothing to suggest any further imminent danger," he added.

Vondrasek said police believed the same gunman had also killed a young man and his two-month-old daughter in a pram during a walk in a forest on the eastern outskirts of Prague on December 15.