The death toll after the shooting on Kraków’s Main Market Square has risen to six, and police have found three more bodies in the flat of the suspected perpetrator. As ORF and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Sunday, the three dead in the man’s house are two women and one man – probably the suspect’s closest family members. Prime Minister Donald Tusk had announced this on Saturday evening; drone footage had discovered the bodies because the authorities suspected explosives in the house.
According to a spokesperson for the Polish Interior Ministry, among the at least 16 injured is also a person from Germany. As the Austrian Interior Ministry confirmed in the night to Sunday, an Austrian was also injured. Other injured people come from Portugal, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to the spokesperson. Twelve of the 16 injured are in a critical or life-threatening condition, according to the head of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Krzysztof Kleczar; among them are two police officers.
The attack itself occurred about a day ago: on Saturday at around 15:00, according to police, a man fired indiscriminately at passers-by from a moving car on the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny). Four women and two men died, and another victim succumbed to their injuries in hospital. According to police, a British national is also among the dead. The shooter fled, fired at a tram during his escape and was overpowered and arrested at the intersection of Dietla and Stradom streets after an exchange of fire. He had himself been shot and underwent emergency surgery.
Days of mourning and a suspicion under investigation
Tusk announced two nationwide days of mourning for Sunday and Monday. Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki had already announced national mourning on Saturday. The head of government spoke of an act of “terrorism”, as did Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who described the attack as a “terrorist act” against the people of Kraków.
Investigators are examining a far-right motive. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said, according to the news agency AP, that the suspect had been fascinated by far-right ideologies and held “very radical views”. “Everything” pointed to this, Kierwiński said on Saturday evening according to ORF. The Kraków public prosecutor’s office and special criminal police units are securing evidence; according to Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, evidence collection at the crime scene should continue at least until Sunday.
The suspect is a 25-year-old Polish citizen from the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. The authorities had initially given his age as 24 and later corrected it to 25. According to police, he wore military clothing and a bulletproof vest and used a semi-automatic long gun similar to an AR-15 assault rifle. In the vehicle, forensic experts found more weapons and a large amount of ammunition. The Defence Ministry clarified that the man is not a soldier in the Polish armed forces.
Lone perpetrator – and many open questions
Police assume a lone perpetrator and denied reports of a search for a possible accomplice. Police spokesperson Katarzyna Cisło said, according to fr.de, that everything indicated that the shooter had not specifically selected his victims at the scene. After the first shots, the man fled in his car and, according to the news agency PAP, collided with another car at an intersection before getting out and firing at the emergency services. Interior Minister Kierwiński spoke, according to Spiegel, of a “lightning-fast reaction” by the police that prevented an even larger massacre; officers had fired at the attacker within three minutes of the first alarm.
The city of Kraków set up a crisis team and called on eyewitnesses to give their statements at a mobile police station directly on the Main Market Square. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on X that he was “deeply affected” and declared that Germany stood “as a friend and partner at Poland’s side in these difficult times”. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also offered their condolences.
With around 800,000 inhabitants, Kraków is Poland’s second-largest city and a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. For people in Germany who are travelling to Kraków these days or have relatives there, the main question is likely to be the motive and possible further accomplices. Tusk appealed on X to politicians of all camps not to make the tragedy “an instrument of political games”. The investigations are ongoing.
Earlier coverage: Shooting on Kraków’s Main Market Square: five dead
