Yrjö Lauranto, a Finn who teaches at Kaarle University, fears that his colleague may have died in Thursday’s shooting.
Roni Kuronen,
Elsa Osipova
Today, Saturday, the victims of the mass shooting at Charles University are remembered in Prague, Czech Republic.
Flags are lowered to half-mast in official buildings and a minute-long moment of silence is held at noon.
On Thursday afternoon, a 24-year-old student shot 13 people at Charles University in Prague and finally killed himself. 25 people were injured in the shooting. Some were seriously wounded. One of the wounded later died in hospital, the authorities have said.
Kaarle University, which became the scene of the mass shooting, also has a department of Finnish language and literature, where Finnish literature was studied at the time of the shooting.
The lecture was held on the 4th floor of the Faculty of Humanities building – the same one where the shooting started. Lecturer of Finnish language and culture at Charles University Yrjö Lauranto told on Thursday that he has not been able to contact one of his colleagues.
On Friday, information spread online that a lecturer in Finnish literature who taught at the university Jan Dlask would be one of the victims of the shooting.
caught up with Lauranto on Friday evening. He is unable to confirm the information that Dlask is among the dead.
– I have heard that this would be the case. However, I cannot confirm it with any certainty.
The Finnish language department is located in a large humanities building, where a large number of people from different fields study and work. According to media reports, the shooter opened fire at the philosophy department.
According to the police, the perpetrator chose his victim at random.
The police have not said whether foreign students were also killed in the shooting. the BBC according to 25 people were injured. At least three of the injured were foreign students: one from the Netherlands and two from the United Arab Emirates.
Expert in Finnish-Swedish literature
According to Lauranto, Dlask knew Finnish culture, language and literature very well. He had also studied Swedish and was therefore also interested in Finno-Swedish literature.
– When I moved to Prague a year and a half ago, we started talking on Mondays with Jan in the same library room where he gave his last lecture.
According to Lauranto, he and Dlask talked a lot about Finnish literature and the Finno-Swedish writer by Christer Kihlman of the works and their meaning.
– Jan had studied Kihlman’s works and they were important to him.
Dalsk and Lauranto also gave presentations together and planned to write a joint article. The article in question will probably remain unwritten now.