Police were tipped off earlier in the day the suspect was likely heading to Prague from his town in the Kladno region outside the capital with intentions of taking his own life.
It left 14 and the gunman dead, authorities said, adding that he was a student at the school. No Americans are believed to have been among the victims, the State Department told CBS News.
Police said the gunman had a "huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition" and they were searching for him even before the mass shooting, after his father was found dead in a village west of Prague
An armed man opened fire in the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooter was a student, said Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek