Six dead after gunman opens fire in Kraków market square, with three more victims found at suspect’s home

Six people have been killed and 16 wounded after a gunman opened fire in a busy market square in Kraków, authorities said, in what Poland’s defence minister called an “act of terror” on the people of the city.

The suspect, a 25-year-old Polish citizen, opened fire with an automatic weapon in the city’s main square at about 3pm on Saturday.

He was fascinated with far-right ideologies and held “very radical” and “ultra-nationalistic” views, the Polish interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, said at a news conference.

Four women and two men were killed, one of them a British citizen, Polish police said. Three of the victims were Polish women and the remaining two victims had not been identified.

The foreign nationals wounded were from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia, a Polish government spokesperson said.

The ⁠injured included two police ⁠officers, one of whom is in a serious condition after being shot three times in the exchange of fire with the alleged attacker.

Late on Saturday night, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said two more women and one man had also been found dead in the suspect’s home, most likely members of his family, he added.

The Polish defense minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, called Saturday’s fatal shooting an “act of terror” on the people of Krakow, Poland’s second-largest city, which receives 15 million visitors a year, most of them passing through the main square.

A tram driver reported about 3pm that his vehicle was shot at from a man in a moving car while passing nearby the main square, the Krakow municipal transport company said. The window to the tram driver’s cabin was shattered.

On Saturday evening, government spokesperson Adam Szłapka wrote on X: “Today’s event in Kraków has shaken all of Poland,” adding that Tusk was “on his way to Kraków”

The justice minister, Waldemar Żurek, wrote on X that authorities would “ensure that the perpetrator of this crime is held fully accountable and severely punished”.

The Polish president, Karol Nawrocki, said he was “deeply concerned by reports of the tragic events” in Kraków, and that his thoughts are with victims, those injured and their families.

Earlier this year, Euronews reported that the number of legally owned firearms in Poland surpassed 1m for the first time.

Poland issued a record 50,700 gun permits in 2025, and the number of active permits registered in 2025 was almost double the number registered in 2015, according to the police statistics cited in the report.

Sunday and Monday will be a period of national mourning for the victims of the attack.