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A gunman kills six people in Krakow's Main Market Square, and three more bodies are found at his home

By Staff Writer  |  8 November 2026

The 25-year-old Polish suspect drove into the square on Saturday afternoon and opened fire on passers-by. The Interior Minister says he held far-right and ultra-nationalist views.

Six people were killed and 16 wounded on Saturday when a gunman opened fire in the Main Market Square in Krakow, Poland's second-largest city, according to the Polish authorities. Late that night the Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, said that the bodies of two women and a man, most likely members of the suspect's family, had also been found at the gunman's home.

Police said the attacker, a 25-year-old Polish citizen, drove into the square shortly before 3pm local time and fired at random from his car. Katarzyna Cisło, a spokesperson for the Krakow police, said he wore military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest and used a military-type long gun, and that officers later found many other weapons and a quantity of ammunition in his vehicle. He was shot and wounded in an exchange of fire with officers a short distance from the square, and he remains in hospital.

The victims

Four women and two men were killed in the square, one of them a British citizen, according to the police. Two police officers were among the wounded, and one of them, who was shot three times, was undergoing surgery. A tram passing near the square was also hit and the window of the driver's cab was shattered, although no one on board was hurt.

The Interior Minister, Marcin Kierwiński, told a news conference that the suspect was fascinated by far-right ideologies and held views he described as very radical and ultra-nationalistic. He said there was no reason to believe that more than one attacker had been involved, and the police said the public was safe. The Defence Minister called the shooting an act of terror against the people of Krakow and rejected reports that the suspect was serving in the army.

The man was not and is not a soldier in the Polish Armed Forces and has never had anything to do with the military.

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Minister of National Defence of Poland

Mourning in the city

The Mayor of Krakow, Łukasz Gibała, declared a period of mourning in the city until Wednesday 11 November, and residents and visitors were asked to keep away from the area during the investigation. Counter-terrorism police supported the search of the suspect's home. The President, Karol Nawrocki, said that his thoughts were with the victims, the injured and their families, and Mr Tusk appealed to politicians of every party not to exploit the tragedy.

Krakow receives about 15 million visitors a year, and most of them pass through the Main Market Square, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. Mass shootings are rare in Poland. Investigators have not yet said whether the weapons used in the attack were held legally.