KRAKOW — A gunman firing from a car killed six people near Main Market Square in Krakow on Saturday, Polish authorities said. Police wounded and detained the suspect before a search of his home uncovered three more bodies, extending the investigation beyond the city’s historic centre.
Regional officers of the Polish Police reported 15 people injured in the November 7 shooting, including two officers. Four women and two men were killed. Authorities said one of those who died was British and at least three were Polish; they were still identifying the other two victims.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there were strong indications that the two women and one man found dead at the suspect’s home were immediate family members. The home discovery was separate from the six deaths in Krakow. The timing and circumstances of those three deaths were not established in the accounts reviewed for this report.
The investigation now covers two locations and a sequence that officials have only partly reconstructed. In its account of the government briefing in Krakow, the Polish Prime Minister’s Chancellery reported six people killed in the attack and 16 injured, including the suspect. The three bodies found at his home were reported separately.
Police chief Marek Boroń said the first report reached police at 15:00:15 local time and that officers exchanged fire with the attacker at 15:03. Thirty police crews were deployed. Those times place the exchange of fire less than three minutes after the first report; they do not establish how long the attacker had been shooting before someone contacted police.
Krakow police spokesperson Katarzyna Cisło said the attacker drove between several locations and opened fire as he went. People were wounded at different points around the square. Witness videos described in the reporting showed people running into nearby streets for cover and emergency workers attending to victims.
Cisło said the suspect wore military-style clothing and a bulletproof vest and carried a military-type long gun. Police also found other weapons and ammunition in his vehicle. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the man was not a soldier: the clothing was commercially available military-style attire, not proof of military service.
Police wounded and detained the suspect, who underwent surgery. Regional police identified him as a Polish citizen and said the only known perpetrator was in custody. ABC News reported that CCTV footage suggested he acted alone at the scene, while officials were separately examining his contacts, travel to Krakow and possible extremist connections. Whether anyone assisted him before the attack remained unresolved.
Kierwiński described the suspect’s views as radical and ultranationalist. In the account published by NPR, the minister said that everything indicated he was “fascinated by far-right ideologies.” This was a preliminary official assessment, not a completed finding about his motive or choice of victims.
The government’s total of 16 injured people included the suspect. The regional police figure of 15 other people injured therefore does not, by itself, conflict with that total. Hospital admissions and descriptions of serious injuries were reported separately: ABC quoted Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński as saying 16 people were in Krakow hospitals, including five foreign nationals, and 13 had arrived as the most serious emergency cases. Those figures describe overlapping groups, not additional casualties.
At the government briefing, Boroń said both wounded police officers were in serious condition and had undergone surgery. Earlier reporting had described one officer as critically injured and undergoing an operation. The postoperative account is the later assessment recorded in the official statement, not a current medical update for every person injured.
Police commander Marek Boroń said the suspect and his family possessed sporting firearms. The reporting did not establish whether the weapon used in the attack, or the other weapons found in the vehicle, were legally held. The origin and legal status of the firearms remained questions for investigators.
Krakow announced municipal mourning from November 8 through November 11, with flags lowered and city events cancelled, ABC reported. Separately, the government announced national mourning on November 8 and 9. Officials were also reviewing security arrangements for Independence Day events on November 11; NPR reported that Warsaw’s mayor announced additional measures, including road barriers along main streets in the old town.
President Karol Nawrocki expressed condolences to victims and their families. Al Jazeera reported that Tusk praised the police response and said officers were investigating the background and circumstances of the attack. Emergency services urged people to stay away from areas where police and rescue workers were operating.
The police response timeline begins with the first report shortly after 3 p.m. It does not establish when the three people found at the suspect’s home died, or the sequence connecting those deaths to his arrival in Krakow. That part of the investigation remained unresolved in the accounts reviewed for this article.
