President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk led tens of thousands of people in a silent march through Kraków on Monday evening to honour the six victims of Saturday's mass shooting.
The two political rivals arrived together at the memorial on the city's Main Market Square. They placed candles among those left by mourners and knelt side by side. Nawrocki repeatedly made the sign of the cross as they paid their respects, while Tusk held a candle as a uniformed officer played a horn nearby.
The march began at the corner of Rynek Główny and Sławkowska Street. It proceeded past St. Mary's Basilica to the Town Hall Tower. Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś led the crowd in the Lord's Prayer and the prayer for the dead, while a trumpeter played "The Sound of Silence."
The ceremony took place during a bitter political dispute between the two leaders over reforms to Poland's Constitutional Tribunal. Despite their disagreements, both took part in honouring those killed in the attack.
The shooting occurred on Saturday when 24-year-old Michał Oksiński drove a black Subaru into the Main Market Square. He opened fire on pedestrians, killing six people and injuring 15. Among the dead were a British citizen and an Austrian woman.
Police shot Oksiński during a chase through the city centre. He died in hospital early Monday morning. Authorities later found the bodies of his parents and sister at his family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, bringing the total death toll to nine.
Tusk wrote on social media: "Tonight in Kraków thousands of Poles gathered to pay tribute to the victims of the 7 November attack. May they rest in peace."
Mayor Łukasz Gibała, who organised the march, thanked participants for attending. The crowd carried candles and flowers, and Polish flags draped with black ribbons were visible throughout the square.
