Poland woke up on Sunday to two days of national mourning after a mass shooting in the historic heart of Kraków. On Saturday afternoon, November 7, a gunman opened fire in the city’s Main Market Square, killing six people and wounding many more before police shot and arrested him. This article sticks to what officials have confirmed through Reuters and other wire reporting, and leaves out unverified claims circulating online.

What happened in the square

Police said they started receiving reports at around 3 p.m. local time that an attacker had opened fire from a car and was shooting at people in the square, one of the most visited places in Poland. According to Reuters, Polish authorities said four women and two men were killed. Seventeen others were wounded, a figure that includes two police officers and the attacker himself.

Witnesses described shots coming from the driver’s side window of a dark car and people running for cover into cafes, restaurants and a police station on the square. Unverified videos shared online showed people fleeing and bystanders trying to help the wounded on the paving stones.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński praised the officers who stopped the attack, saying they fired at the gunman just three minutes after receiving the first report. “The police prevented a much larger massacre that could have otherwise occurred,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.

Who the suspect is

Police said the suspect is a 24-year-old Polish citizen and the only known perpetrator. A police spokesperson told broadcaster TVN 24 that he used an AR-15 rifle and held a firearms licence. Officers also found many weapons and a lot of ammunition in his vehicle, and he was wearing military-style clothing.

Kierwiński told reporters that “everything points to the fact that the shooter was influenced by far-right ideology,” adding that this would be part of the investigation. Poland’s Internal Security Agency and its military counterintelligence service are supporting police.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk later said the bodies of two women and one man had been found at the suspect’s home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, just under 200 kilometres north of Kraków, and that there were strong indications they were members of his immediate family. Residents of the building were evacuated while counterterrorism officers went in, and a drone was used to look inside first because officials believed a significant amount of weaponry might be there.

As of late Saturday, a regional spokesperson said the wounded police officers were in stable condition after surgery and the suspect was in “stable but very critical condition.”

Foreign visitors among the victims

Kraków’s Old Town draws visitors from all over the world, and that was reflected in the casualty list. Police said one of the people killed who had been identified so far was a British citizen. An interior ministry spokesperson said five injured foreign nationals came from Austria, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Britain.

A country in shock

Reuters noted that Poland has long seen itself as safer than some Western European neighbours that have suffered similar attacks, and that the shooting comes after a string of school stabbings in October that authorities linked to violent and extremist content online.

President Karol Nawrocki declared national mourning for November 8 and 9. Messages of condolence came in from across Europe, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling the attack “shocking” and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas describing it as “a tragedy that will be felt far beyond Poland.” Poland’s justice minister also called for blood donations for one of the wounded officers. You can follow ongoing updates through outlets such as The Guardian’s world news page.

What comes next

Investigators will now focus on the suspect’s motive, how he obtained his weapons, and the deaths at his family home. Officials have not released the names of the victims. Expect more details in the coming days as prosecutors file charges and the investigation into possible extremist influences moves forward.

The bottom line

Six people were killed in one of Europe’s best-loved public squares, and Poland is now mourning while it looks for answers. For now, the confirmed facts are limited: a lone 24-year-old suspect is in custody, officials suspect far-right influence, and police are being credited with stopping the attack within minutes.

Image: Józef Mehoffer – Main Market Square in Krakow – MNK II-b-860 – National Museum Kraków by Józef Mehoffer via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain Mark 1.0