A 24-year-old gunman who opened fire in Krakow’s Main Square and killed six people died in hospital Monday, police said.
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A 24-year-old gunman with far-right views who opened fire in Krakow’s Main Square on Saturday died in hospital Monday, police said.
Police said the attacker drove into Krakow’s Old Town and began shooting in the city’s central Main Square, a major tourist destination in Poland’s second-largest city. The man was wearing military-style clothing and a bulletproof vest, and authorities said he continued firing even after police officers wounded him.
Authorities said the attacker had been in critical condition in the hospital since the attack.
Investigators also said the bodies of the gunman’s sister, mother and father were found at the attacker’s family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 150 kilometres northeast of Krakow, and they likely died from gunshot wounds.
Four women and two men were killed in the shooting. Police said three of the women and one of the men were Polish, and a man from the United Kingdom and a woman from Austria were also among the dead.
Police said 15 people were wounded, including five foreigners from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Germany and Austria.
Two police officers who stopped the gunman remain in hospital, and authorities said both were conscious by Sunday afternoon. Prosecutors opened an investigation Sunday into murder and attempted murder of numerous people, including police officers, describing the act as “constituting a terrorist offense.”
On Sunday night, mourners laid candles and flowers alongside bullet holes in Krakow after the city’s central square became the site of the attack. Resident Maciej Sikorski said he came to the square “so as not to get caught up in a spiral of fear and anxiety,” adding that “in a situation like this, it’s all too easy to stop living — to start being afraid instead, and just vegetate. That is something I really want to avoid.”
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