Bodies found at home of suspect in Kraków mass shooting

LAST UPDATE | 19 hrs ago

POLAND HAS BEGUN two days of national mourning after six people were killed and 15 others were wounded when a gunman opened fire in a busy central square in Kraków.

The attack, which Poland’s defence minister described as an “act of terror”, happened on Saturday in Main Square, which is in the heart of Kraków’s Old Town and is a major tourist hub in the country’s second-largest city.

By evening, mourners had left candles in memory of the victims. The square remained partially closed on Sunday morning as authorities continued their investigation.

Authorities also found three dead bodies at the 24-year-old suspected gunman’s family home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, a city about 150km northeast of Kraków. Police said on Sunday they were the bodies of his sister, mother and father, and they are believed to have been shot.

“We have the next acts of this tragedy,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.

Four women and two men were killed in the Main Square shooting. At least three of the women were Polish, and one of the victims was British.

Police were still trying to identify the other two people who were killed. 

The attacker was shot and injured by police, with the two officers who stopped him, in actions authorities hailed as heroic, remaining in hospital. One is in a critical condition, prompting officials to launch an appeal for blood donations.

Among the wounded are five people from outside Poland, with officials saying they are from the UK, Portugal, Russia, Germany and Austria.

The attacker drove to multiple spots in the square and opened fire at each stop with an automatic weapon, authorities said. Although they did not release his name, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the man holds “very radical” and “ultranationalistic” views.

“Everything indicates that he was fascinated by far-right ideologies,” Kierwinski said at a news conference.

Authorities have not identified the alleged attacker, but they have said he is a young Polish man who has “ultranationalistic” views.

The suspect opened fire with an automatic weapon in the city’s Main Square, in what Poland’s defence minister called an “act of terror” on the people of the city.

The gunman aimed at random people as he drove by the city’s Main Square, a major tourist destination, Kraków police said. Police officers are among the wounded.

Thirteen of the 16 people injured were taken to hospital with serious injuries, and one of them was a foreign citizen.

It was not immediately clear how many of the victims had suffered gunshot wounds, though two people had already been released from medical treatment within hours of the attack.

The alleged perpetrator was shot and wounded during a gunfight with officers a short distance away from the initial violence, police said, and was taken to hospital for surgery.

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called Saturday’s fatal shooting an “act of terror” on the people of Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, which receives 15 million visitors a year, most of them passing through the Main Square.

Kraków is roughly 250km from the capital, Warsaw.

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Katarzyna Cislo, a spokesperson for the Kraków police, told TVN24 that the perpetrator was wearing military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest, and he used a military-type long gun in the attack.

The attacker engaged in a “wild ride” around the Main Square, Cislo said, which is why people were wounded at several locations. Videos posted on social media by witnesses show people running away from the square to take cover on small streets nearby, as well as first responders trying to resuscitate victims.

In one of the videos, a police officer is seen repeatedly shooting the attacker, who is lying on the street, only to later slowly collapse himself to the ground.

Police found several other weapons, as well as ammunition, in his car.

He kept firing at the police even after being shot himself, she said. Cislo added that the gunman acted alone.

Kierwinski wrote on X that two police officers were wounded by gunfire and one is in a serious condition.

Animal rights group OTOZ Animals said the attacker also shot two horses. Both animals are alive, but one was grazed by a bullet and the other hit in the leg. White carriages drawn by horses are a main tourist attraction in the square.

Images from the scene showed police officers and ambulances covering the area, which is in the centre of Kraków. A Polish Medical Air Rescue helicopter also landed in the square.

A spokesperson for the local firefighters told Polsat News that the perpetrator fired a gun from a passing car.

A tram driver reported around 3pm that his vehicle was shot at from a man in a moving car while passing nearby the main square, the Kraków municipal transport company said. The window to the tram driver’s cabin was shattered.

Mass shootings are uncommon in Poland. However, in mid-October three attacks at schools in the central province of Mazovia took place within four days, leaving one person dead and many wounded, including children.

It was not immediately clear whether the firearm used in Saturday’s attack, or the guns found in the alleged perpetrator’s car, were legal. Around 411,000 people hold gun permits in Poland, which has a population of 37 million, and interest in gun ownership has been rising.

Tusk, in a post on X, earlier praised the police officers who responded to Saturday’s tragedy.

And Polish President Karol Nawrocki said his thoughts were with the victims, the wounded and their families.

“We are just learning details of the horrific mass shooting in Kraków, a savage and murderous attack that’s shattered the peace of Poland,” Tom Rose, the US ambassador to Poland, wrote on X.

“America stands with Poland at this dark hour as Poland stands with her beloved citizens of Kraków.”

Kraków mayor Lukasz Gibala said the city will be in official mourning until Wednesday. He vowed that Kraków will remain open to visitors despite the tragedy.

“The square will belong to us again,” Gibala said in a video posted to X.

Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski announced increased security measures, including road barriers, along main streets in the old town in the Polish capital in the aftermath of the Kraków attack.