Poland mourns six killed in mass shooting

Krakow’s Main Market Square remained sealed off yesterday as mourners brought candles in tribute to six people killed by a gunman who authorities said was “fascinated by far-right ideologies.”

The 24-year-old Polish national opened fire at random on Saturday in the heart of Krakow’s historic center, in what Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an act of “terrorism.”

A British national was among the dead in Poland’s second city, police said.

Police officers stand guard near the main market square following a mass shooting in Krakow, Poland, on Saturday.

Photo: Reuters

And among the 15 wounded were nationals from Austria, Britain, Germany, Portugal and Russia, authorities told the PAP news agency.

Three more bodies were found at the suspect’s home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, about 150km northeast of Krakow. Police said they were his parents and a sister.

The gunman was wounded in a shoot out with police and is in critical condition in hospital.

Two police officers were wounded.

The National Prosecutor’s Office said it had launched a terrorism investigation.

“I’m absolutely devastated,” Weronika Filar, 27, a Krakow resident, said yesterday.

“It’s one of the safest places on Earth, genuinely ... I did not expect anything like this to happen to us,” she said, adding: “Our city will never be the same.”

The two police officers were wounded as they chased the suspect, who was masked and dressed in military garb, including a bullet-proof vest.

The man left his car at an intersection and started shooting at the officers with a semi-automatic rifle, police said.

One police officer was in serious but stable condition, PAP quoted the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration as saying. Police appealed for blood donors for the officer, named Jakub Kulik, who “without hesitation confronted an armed attacker.”

Social media images showed the two police firing at the gunman, with one managing to wound him despite his own injuries.

Yesterday morning, the usually busy site of the attack was sealed off with red-and-white tape.

People laid candles and police checked the bags of workers at the cafes and restaurants on the square.

Black flags and Polish flags with black ribbons were seen in the city as Warsaw announced two days of national mourning for the victims from yesterday.

The suspect was named in the news agencies as Michal O.

The three bodies found at the gunman’s home were his parents and a sister, regional police said on social media.

The victims were a 53-year-old man and two women aged 52 and 21.

“Injuries were found on the bodies, which were preliminarily assessed as gunshot wounds ... Seven firearms were seized from the flat,” police added.

Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwinski said police had also found weapons in the suspect’s car.

According to investigators quoted in the Polish news, the suspect had no previous criminal record.

He was a member of a shooting club, along with his father.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was “shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting.”

In Taipei, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) expressed condolences and sympathy to the victims and their families and wished those injured a speedy recovery, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

According to Taiwan’s representative office in Poland, there were no indications that any Taiwanese nationals were among the casualties, the ministry said.

The representative office has activated emergency response measures and is maintaining close contact with Polish police and authorities to obtain the latest updates about the incident, it said.

In the event of an emergency, Taiwanese nationals in Poland can call the ministry’s toll-free hotline at 0800-085-095 if they need urgent assistance, MOFA said.