ع
Malopolska police announced early on November 9 that the 24-year-old perpetrator of the Krakow attack died in hospital after several operations to treat wounds sustained when officers returned fire. The suspect had remained in critical condition since the confrontation that ended the rampage within three minutes of its start, according to the force’s statement on X. Officials credited the rapid police response with preventing an even higher death toll in the crowded tourist area.
The assailant drove into the Main Market Square in Krakow’s Old Town shortly before 3 p.m. local time on Saturday and began firing randomly from his vehicle with a military-grade automatic weapon, AP News reported. Six people were killed, four of them Polish nationals along with one British man and one Austrian woman, while 15 others were injured including two police officers and five foreign nationals from countries such as the UK, Germany and Austria. The assault transformed the historic square, a centerpiece of Poland’s second-largest city, into a scene of immediate panic and bloodshed.
Police later found the bodies of three more victims at the suspect’s family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, approximately 150 kilometers northeast of Krakow, the Guardian stated. Those killed were the gunman’s 53-year-old father, 52-year-old mother and 21-year-old sister, all believed to have died from gunshot wounds before the square attack, according to details released by authorities and carried by Bloomberg. The linked discoveries expanded the scope of the investigation that followed the initial shooting.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said early inquiries showed the suspect held ultra-nationalist views and appeared fascinated by far-right ideologies, a characterization repeated in briefings covered by ITV News. Karolina Galecka, an interior ministry spokeswoman, told TOK FM radio that various emblems on the attacker’s military-style clothing were being examined by specialists as the case progressed. Prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation into the killings and attempted murders, treating the entire episode as a terrorist offence.
The incident marks a grim first for modern Poland, where mass killings remain rare despite rising gun permit applications that now total around 411,000 in a population of 37 million, PBS News reported. The Never Again Association’s latest Brown Book on fascism and violence, released this week, documented the Krakow attack alongside other far-right incidents from 2025 and 2026. A researcher at the International Center for Counterterrorism told PBS News the gunman’s attire and tactics echoed those of extreme-right lone actors in other European attacks.
As two days of national mourning commenced, residents and visitors left candles and flowers beside visible bullet holes in the square, according to on-scene coverage by DPA International. One local resident, Maciej Sikorski, told The Associated Press, “I come here so as not to get caught up in a spiral of fear and anxiety.” Police also issued a blood donation appeal for a senior constable who confronted the gunman and suffered life-threatening injuries.
