Poland calls Krakow shooting rampage ‘terrorist’ attack

Poland on Sunday launched a terrorism probe as mourners brought candles and flowers to Krakow’s cordoned-off Main Market Square in tribute to six people killed by a gunman who authorities said was “fascinated by far-right ideologies”.

The 24-year-old Polish man opened fire apparently at random Saturday in the historic centre of the country’s second city, in what prime minister Donald Tusk called an act of “terrorism”.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres condemned the shootings, expressing “his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the Government and people of Poland”, his spokesman said in a statement Sunday.

A 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman were among the dead, the Malopolska region’s governor Krzysztof Kleczar told reporters. The four others killed were Polish.

Among the 15 wounded were nationals from Germany, Portugal and Russia, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.

Three more bodies were found at the suspect’s home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, around 150km (95 miles) northeast of Krakow. Police said they were his parents and his sister.

The gunman was wounded in a shootout with police and was in critical condition in hospital.

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

“I’m absolutely devastated,” Weronika Filar, 27, a Krakow resident, told AFP on Sunday.

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

“We’ve heard of various incidents of this sort happening elsewhere in Europe,” Krzysztof Stepien, a 28-year-old part-time city guide told AFP.

“Nothing like this has ever happened here, and I hope it never will again,” Stepien said.

Two police officers were wounded as they chased the suspect, who was masked and dressed in military garb, including a bulletproof vest.

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

Officer hailed as hero

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

One police officer was in serious but stable condition, the interior ministry said, as quoted by PAP.

Police named him as “Jakub Kulik, who without hesitation confronted an armed attacker”.

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

Most of the souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes remained closed.

Black flags and Poland’s flags with black ribbons were seen in the city as Warsaw announced two days of national mourning for the victims from Sunday.

Pope Leo XIV, currently visiting South America, said he was “deeply saddened by the news of the dead and wounded as a result of the shooting in Krakow”, in a message to Krakow’s archbishop.

The archbishop, Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, holding mass in the city’s cathedral, said: “Death is certain, but the hour of death is in no way so.

“Who would have thought that a stay in Krakow could end in death at the Market Square?”

Relatives’ bodies found

The suspect was named in the media as Michal O.

Police said the three bodies found at the gunman’s home were those of his parents, a 53-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman, and his 21-year-old sister.

Police officers were still inspecting the flat of the suspect in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, an AFP reporter saw.

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

Interior minister Marcin Kierwinski said police had also found weapons in the suspect’s car.

According to investigators quoted in the Polish media, Michal O had no previous criminal record.

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

Britain’s prime minister Andy Burnham said he was “shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting”.

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