At least six people have been killed and 15 others injured after a gunman opened fire on pedestrians in the historic centre of Kraków, Poland, on Saturday afternoon.
The shooting took place shortly after 3:00 p.m. local time on November 7, in the city’s Main Market Square (Rynek Główny), near Sławkowska Street, one of the busiest tourist areas in the country.
According to Polish police, the attacker drove into the square and began firing randomly at people from his vehicle. The victims included four women and two men.
The suspect subsequently fled the scene. During the incident, a tram was also struck by gunfire near Plac Wszystkich Świętych, shattering a window in the driver’s cabin. No passengers or the tram driver were injured.
Police later located the suspect near the intersection of Dietla and Stradomska streets. After crashing into another vehicle, he reportedly exited his car and exchanged gunfire with responding officers.
The attacker was shot and arrested by police before being transported to hospital. Two police officers were also injured during the exchange of fire, one of whom sustained three gunshot wounds and was reported to be in very serious condition.
Polish authorities identified the suspect as a 24-year-old Polish citizen. He was reportedly wearing military-style camouflage clothing and a mask and was armed with a rifle believed to be an AR-15. Police also discovered additional firearms, ammunition and military-style equipment inside his vehicle.
Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said preliminary findings suggested that the suspect was influenced by far-right ideologies and held radical ultranationalist views. However, investigators have not yet established a definitive motive for the attack.
In a further development, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that three additional bodies, believed to be members of the suspect’s immediate family, were discovered at his residence in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, approximately 150 kilometres from Kraków.
The circumstances surrounding those deaths remain under investigation.
Tusk described the shooting as an act of terrorism, while Polish authorities continued investigating the suspect’s background and the circumstances surrounding the attack.
The shooting has shocked Poland, where mass shootings of this scale are rare. Authorities have also confirmed that a British national was among those killed.
