Gunman kills six in Kraków market square attack; three bodies found at suspect's home

A gunman killed six people and wounded 16 others on Kraków's main market square Saturday afternoon after driving a car into the popular tourist site and opening fire at random with an automatic weapon, Polish police said.

The suspect, described by police as a 25-year-old Polish man who acted alone, wore military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest. He drove to multiple spots within the square, firing at each. The perpetrator was shot by police officers and is currently being transported to a hospital, police said.

Polish police chief Marek Boron confirmed the six dead as four women and two men: three Polish women, one British national, and two people not yet identified. Five of the 16 injured were non-Polish nationals, from Austria, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Britain, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said.

Later Saturday evening, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that police had found three more bodies at the family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, roughly 150 kilometres northeast of Kraków. Tusk said there was "much to suggest that they are members of the [suspect's] immediate family." "We have the next acts of this tragedy," he told reporters. That brings the total suspected death toll to nine.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the suspect was "fascinated by far-right ideologies" and held "ultranationalistic" and "very radical" views. Additional weapons and ammunition were recovered from his vehicle.

Tusk called the attack an act of terrorism. "Until now in Poland we haven't had such drastic cases of terrorism," he told reporters. Tusk later said Poland would observe two days of mourning for the victims of the shooting. Polish President Karol Nawrocki wrote on X that his thoughts were with the victims and wounded, as well as their families. The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the shooting "will be felt far beyond Poland" and that "Poland does not stand alone." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote that "Germany stands alongside Poland as a friend and partner during these difficult times."