Poland calls Krakow shooting rampage ‘terrorist’ attack

KRAKOW, Poland – Poland on Nov 8 launched a terrorism probe as mourners brought candles and flowers to Krakow’s Main Market Square in tribute to six people killed by a gunman who the authorities said was “fascinated by far-right ideologies”.

The 24-year-old Polish man opened fire at random on Nov 7 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 on Nov 8.

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 north-east of Krakow. Police said they were his parents and his sister.

The gunman was wounded in a shootout with police and is 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 Nov 8.

“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.”

Krzysztof Stepien, a 28-year-old part-time city guide, told AFP: “We’ve heard of various incidents of this sort happening elsewhere in Europe. Nothing like this has ever happened here, and I hope it never will again.”

Two police officers were wounded as they desperately 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, according to police.

Police hero

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

One 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 the morning of Nov 8, 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.

Most of the souvenir shops remained closed.

Black flags and Poland’s flag with black ribbons were seen in the city as Warsaw announced two days of national mourning for the victims from Nov 8.

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 added.

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”. AFP