Six people were killed and 16 were wounded in a Saturday shooting at the Main Square (Rynek Główny) in Kraków. A masked 24-year-old drove a car onto the square and opened fire on people. He was wounded in an exchange of fire with police and detained. Police officers are among the wounded. Mourning has been declared in Kraków and across the country.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a briefing after a meeting with the heads of the security services that three dead people were found in the attacker’s home: two women and a man. “Everything indicates that they are members of his immediate family,” the prime minister said.
Witness accounts and information from the authorities indicate that a speeding car drove onto the Main Square just after 3 p.m. Inside the vehicle was a masked man who began shooting at passersby with a firearm. Terrified people ran and sought shelter in nearby gateways, cafés and restaurants.
City hall also determined that a person in the passing car fired at a No. 1 tram. The window in the driver’s cab was shattered, but none of the passengers or the driver was injured.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said at a press conference at the Lesser Poland Voivodeship Office in Kraków that police officers fired the first shots at the attacker three minutes after the emergency call. “The officers’ lightning-fast reaction prevented a much greater massacre. (…) The fire department and emergency medical services also arrived within three minutes,” he stressed.
He added that findings so far indicate the attacker came from Świętokrzyskie Province, acted alone and was fascinated by far-right ideologies. The minister said a number of firearms were found in the car the man was using. Officers from counterterrorism units are carrying out operations at the house where he lived.
Police continue to secure the attacker’s car, and the area around it remains cordoned off by the fire department and police.
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek appealed at the press conference to Kraków residents and tourists to stay in their homes and hotels, so as not to hinder the services working at the scene.
Żurek also appealed for calm and for emotions to cool. “Today the situation is completely under control. The services are on site, and the system worked very quickly for an event of this size,” the minister said. He urged people not to interfere with the services working at the scene, because their work will continue through the night and probably until morning.
According to an account from a photojournalist working with PAP, the attacker was fleeing police and collided with a white car at the intersection with Dietla Street. He then jumped out of the vehicle and opened fire on officers. Deputy Inspector Katarzyna Cisło, spokeswoman for the Provincial Police Headquarters in Kraków, said officers returned fire, shot the attacker and subdued him.
The perpetrator, a 24-year-old Polish citizen, was taken to one of Kraków’s hospitals. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka confirmed his citizenship on X. Police corrected initial reports of a possible second attacker: Officer Jakub Mirochna of the Kraków police headquarters explained that the report was erroneous.
Police findings indicate that the masked attacker was dressed in military-style clothing. He used a military-type long gun, most likely an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Deputy Inspector Katarzyna Cisło said a very large number of other firearms and ammunition were secured in the man’s car. The vehicle’s trunk contained, among other things, a military backpack, pouches and a bayonet.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz denied reports that the attacker was a soldier of the Polish Army. He stressed that the man was not and is not a Polish Army soldier and “never had anything to do with the military.”
Deputy Inspector Andrzej Fijołek, spokesman for the National Police Commander, said on TVN24 in the evening that the shooter is a resident of Świętokrzyskie Province. “He had a firearms permit, and he probably fired from one of the weapons he was licensed to own,” he said. He added that the man has no criminal record and had not been on police files.
Fijołek told PAP in the evening that the bodies found in the apartment in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski are most likely the attacker’s parents and sister. Official confirmation will have to wait until the services finish their work, Fijołek cautioned.
Police in Świętokrzyskie Province confirmed that three bodies were found during operations in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Officers are searching the 24-year-old’s home there. Artur Majchrzak of the press team at the Provincial Police Headquarters in Kielce stressed that the work is ongoing and that the circumstances of the three deaths have not yet been determined.
According to information provided by the Lesser Poland Voivodeship Office and police, six people died in the shooting and 15 were injured. The victims were taken to Kraków hospitals, including University Hospital. Citing patient rights law, the hospital’s spokeswoman, Maria Włodkowska, did not provide details on the condition of those hospitalized. A helicopter from the LPR air ambulance service landed on the Main Square.
Among the wounded are police officers who intervened at the scene. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said on X that one officer suffered a gunshot wound, while the other is in very serious condition, having been shot three times. Lesser Poland police officially denied reports that any of the wounded officers had died.
Lesser Poland police also denied reports of a delayed response by the services during the shooting near the Main Square in Kraków. An official statement stressed that officers intervened immediately after the report. “The first patrol began operations just 23 seconds after the report,” it said.
Police officers and prosecutors from the district and regional prosecutor’s offices and the Branch Division of the National Prosecutor’s Office continue to work in central Kraków to establish the circumstances of Saturday’s shooting. “Operational and investigative activities are under way to establish all the circumstances, including whether anyone acted with him, to check various locations in the city, and to determine whether the situation is fully under control,” said prosecutor Waszczuk. He added that interviews and other steps in the case will be planned in the coming days.
In connection with the events in Kraków, government representatives urged restraint and reliance on official announcements only. “Many unverified reports about the events in Kraków are appearing online and in some media. Let’s not repeat rumors and speculation. Let’s follow the official statements of the services. Let’s not allow disinformation to heighten anxiety,” government spokesman Adam Szłapka wrote on X.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór, in turn, noted that the services are intensively investigating the circumstances of the tragedy, and warned against attempts to manipulate emotions. “There will be those who want to use this tragedy to spread disinformation and manipulate emotions. Let’s not be drawn into that game,” he stressed.
A crisis team was convened at Kraków’s city hall in response to the tragedy. Kraków Mayor Łukasz Gibała signed an order declaring mourning in the city, which will last until Nov. 11. He appealed to residents for calm and responsibility.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński and National Police Commander Gen. Marek Boroń went to the scene of the tragedy.
In the evening, Prime Minister Donald Tusk held a meeting in Kraków with ministers and representatives of the services. Bartosz Grodecki, head of the National Security Bureau, also took part in the crisis team meeting. After the meeting, the prime minister said, among other things, that the police, the special services and prosecutors would do everything to inform the public as quickly as possible about the reasons for the shooting.
National Police Commander Gen. Marek Boroń said at a briefing that the exchange of fire between the perpetrator and police officers took place three minutes after the report was received, and that 30 police crews took part in the intervention. He said that among the six people killed in the Kraków shooting are a British citizen and three Polish women, while two people have not yet been identified.
Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister coordinating the special services, said the Internal Security Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Service are involved in the operation. The perpetrator’s connections, his past and his family’s past are being examined, he added.
“I very much ask, especially in these coming hours, that we respect only information that comes from the police, the fire department, the mayor and the voivode, that is, from those who will be directly handling all the operations,” Tusk said.
He announced that Sunday and Monday will be days of national mourning in Poland. On Saturday evening, President Karol Nawrocki signed a decree to that effect.
Condolences for the families of the shooting victims and expressions of support for the injured are pouring in from across the country and around the world. (PAP)
