A gunman killed six people on Kraków's historic Main Square on Saturday before the site reopened and hundreds gathered to mourn.
The 24-year-old attacker, Michał O., opened fire from his car on the square in the southern Polish city around 3 p.m. on Saturday. He killed three Polish women aged 61, 47 and 53, a 50-year-old Polish man, a 32-year-old British citizen and a 51-year-old Austrian woman. Sixteen others were injured, including two police officers wounded while apprehending the suspect.
On Sunday, residents returned to the square, where bullet marks remained on café windows and mourners lit candles at a makeshift memorial. Hundreds gathered to pay respects during two days of national mourning declared for Sunday and Monday, with flags flying at half-mast across Poland while police patrolled the area.
Prosecutors launched a terrorism investigation after finding the bodies of the attacker's parents and sister in his apartment in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. The 53-year-old man and two women aged 52 and 21 had gunshot wounds, and the two cases were combined into a single investigation.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the suspect was "fascinated by far-right ideologies," while investigators found 11 weapons in his home. The attacker, a lathe operator with no prior criminal record, was shot during an exchange of fire with police and remains in critical condition after several surgeries; he is not yet fit for interrogation.
Authorities announced the two wounded officers would receive state honors and honorary citizenship, while police appealed for blood donations for officer Jakub Kulik, who has the rare AB-positive blood type. One officer has been brought out of a medically induced coma, while the other remains in a coma.
Two surgeons eating near the square rushed to treat victims, including the attacker and the wounded officers, before emergency services arrived. Professor Michal Pędziwiatr said, "We rushed into the area and started our rescue." A crowdfunding campaign raised approximately 1.1 million euros for the injured officers within 17 hours.
