Czech Hospital Shooting Claims Seventh Victim

Prague, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2019 ) :A woman shot in the head during a shooting spree at a Czech hospital this week died on Thursday, becoming the seventh victim of a gunman who also killed himself.

The lone gunman opened fire in the waiting room of the trauma ward at the Faculty Hospital in the northeastern town of Ostrava, killing six people and injuring three, including the woman and two men.

"The lady succumbed to her injuries and she died this afternoon," hospital spokeswoman Petra Petlachova told AFP.

Shot from close range like the others, the woman had been in a critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Petlachova said that one of the injured men had been released on Thursday and that the other was still in hospital but his life was not in danger.

Police have not yet determined what drove the gunman, identified by Czech media as 42-year-old builder Ctirad Vitasek, to carry out the attack although media reports suggest he was mentally unstable.

Witnesses told the local press that Vitasek believed he had cancer and no one wanted to treat him.

Vitasek fled the shooting scene in his car, sparking a police hunt involving hundreds of officers and two helicopters.

Police tracked him down in a village near Ostrava where he shot himself in the head as a police helicopter hovered over his car, dying minutes later.

Police said he had a criminal record for violence and theft. He did not hold a gun permit.

frj/mas/txw