A gunman drove onto Kraków's main market square on Saturday afternoon and fired from his car into the crowd, killing six people and wounding at least fifteen, according to Tagesspiegel. Police shot and arrested the suspect, a 25-year-old Polish man identified as Michal O., who was seriously wounded. Three more bodies were later found at his home, bringing the death toll to nine.
The attack began around 3 p.m., according to police and prosecutors. A police spokesperson told the broadcaster TVN24 that the man wore military-style clothing and used a military-type long gun, possibly a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. Officers recovered numerous other weapons and ammunition from his vehicle.
Among the six killed on the square were three Polish women and a British citizen, Tagesspiegel reports, citing police in the Małopolska region. Krzysztof Kleczar, the regional governor, said at least fifteen people were hurt and that twelve of the injured were in critical or life-threatening condition, according to the PAP news agency.
Why it matters
The killings have shaken Poland and prompted two days of official mourning. President Karol Nawrocki declared national mourning for Sunday and Monday. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said three police officers were wounded in the response, one of whom was fighting for his life.
The attack also comes amid heightened attention to far-right politics in Poland. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said hours after the shooting that "everything" pointed to the perpetrator being fascinated by far-right ideologies, Tagesspiegel reports. He spoke during a visit to Kraków on Saturday evening.
Three bodies found at the suspect's home
Later on Saturday, officers went to the suspect's house, roughly a two-hour drive from Kraków. Because of suspicions that explosives might be inside, a drone was used to film the property, and the footage showed three dead people, Tusk said at a press conference of the crisis team. He said the victims were two women and a man, probably the gunman's closest relatives.
Tusk gave no further details on the background to the killings. He said police, security services and prosecutors would do everything possible to establish the suspect's motives as quickly as possible.
According to the authorities, O. comes from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 200 kilometers from Kraków, and works as a tradesman. He was already known to police, Tagesspiegel reports.
Officers opened fire during the arrest
Police said officers used their firearms while trying to detain the suspect, and that he was seriously wounded. The man returned fire, but the officers were able to take him into custody. Videos circulating on social media show a single officer, himself already shot, ultimately stopping the attacker alone in an exchange of gunfire.
Tusk wrote on X that police had begun investigating the incident. He expressed condolences to the victims' families and praised the "heroic" conduct of the officers. In the same post he appealed to politicians "of every stripe": "Do not exploit this tragedy. We will clarify all the circumstances of this crime."
Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz described the shooting as "an act of terror," according to Tagesspiegel.
Witnesses describe sudden chaos
People who were on the square described scenes of panic. "Only now is the adrenaline subsiding," one person told Polsat News. "In the first moment there was great chaos. People started moving frantically. I saw overturned tables."
Another witness said: "We even saw the shooter. We hid in the back rooms. It all happened so suddenly."
A third told the broadcaster that people ran in every direction. "Suddenly a car drove up and a man started shooting out of the window," the witness said. The attacker wore a helmet or a mask, and his face could not be seen.
Political backdrop
The attack lands in a charged political climate. Beyond the Law and Justice party (PiS), which has moved further to the right and split in recent years, other right-wing parties have gained support in Poland. Together, the right-populist Konfederacja and the far-right KKP of publicist Grzegorz Braun account for roughly 40 percent of the electorate, Tagesspiegel reports. Poland is due to hold elections in autumn 2027.
Tagesspiegel also notes a recent rise in anti-Ukrainian assaults in Poland and increasing hostility toward Germany. About a month before the Kraków attack, a series of knife attacks occurred at schools in the country. Tusk attributed those to a growing, nihilistic violent extremism fueled by the glorification of violence on social media.
Condolences from abroad
Messages of shock and sympathy came from across Europe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among those who responded to the killings, though the source material does not include the full text of his statement.
The suspect remains in serious condition, and investigators have not yet publicly set out a motive beyond the interior minister's reference to far-right ideology. What happens next depends on his condition and on the prosecutors' inquiry: watch for formal charges, further findings from the house where three people were found dead, and whether the government moves to address the broader questions about extremist violence that the attack has raised.
