The European country, unaccustomed to acts of violence, woke up in a state of shock this Sunday, a day after a young man "fascinated" by far-right ideas killed six people and injured fifteen in a busy square in Krakow, the nation's second largest city. In the midst of the two-day mourning, citizens began to pay tribute to the victims, while the Polish prosecutor's office announced the opening of a terrorism investigation.

First modification: 08/11/2026 - 15:49Last modification: 08/11/2026 - 15:49

A day after the deadly shooting that caused the death of six people in Krakow's Market Square, Poles are experiencing pain and a certain disbelief in the face of the violent event, in a country that feels that its sense of security is shattering.

While the authorities have opened an investigation for terrorism and the young attacker remains hospitalized along with 15 other wounded, the usually bustling historic center of the city – declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO – was practically empty on November 8, on the first of the two days of national mourning decreed after the tragedy.

The traditional square, the site of the indiscriminate shooting that occurred around 3:00 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, will be closed to the public until the investigations, led by seven prosecutors, are completed. In that area, cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops and other businesses mostly kept their doors closed, and the local town hall raised its flag at half-mast.

In the surrounding area, and given the impossibility of accessing the site of the attack, small altars have begun to appear in tribute to the four women and two men murdered; and in many hotels in this tourist spot, buses crowded to transport travelers who decided to shorten their stay.

And the misfortune struck both locals and visitors: among the six deceased there was a British man and a foreign woman whose nationality has not yet been revealed; and of the fifteen injured, five were nationals of the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia.

The two police officers who arrested the attacker are still hospitalized in the hospital – an action described as "heroic" by authorities and witnesses – one of whom remains in a coma, while the other has woken up, according to Krzysztof Jan Klęczar, regional governor of the province of Little Poland (Małopolska).

The 24-year-old attacker is also hospitalized and in critical condition, after having undergone several surgeries.

A symbol of the exceptional state was that the trumpet call of St. Mary's Basilica – a traditional five-note melody that sounds every hour from the church's tallest tower in the Plaza Mayor – was interrupted for 12 hours to commemorate the deceased. It is the first time this has happened since 1939, during World War II.

Read alsoCommotion in Poland: what is known about the deadly shooting in Krakow's Main Square?

In the shooter's house, his parents and sister are found dead

Prosecutors reported Sunday that they have launched an investigation into murder and attempted murder against numerous people, including police officers, and classified the act as "a terrorist crime."

But a gruesome turn in the case occurred when, on Saturday night, a police drone located the lifeless bodies of the father (53 years old), mother (52) and sister (21) of the attacker, with gunshot wounds, in their home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 160 kilometers from Krakow.

This opens a second line of investigation into a possible family crime prior to the attack in the central square of Krakow.

The spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, Daniel Prokopowicz, pointed out that it is "highly probable" that the homicides that occurred in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski and Krakow were carried out by the same person, although he specified that the investigations are still ongoing.

Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said that the 24-year-old attacker – identified in local media as Michal O. – had "very radical" and "ultranationalist" positions, with indications that "he was fascinated by far-right ideologies."

At the time of the shooting, he was wearing a military uniform – although he had no connection with the Polish Army –, a mask, helmet and tactical vest and used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. As he opened fire aboard a black Subaru and then began a chase before police intervention, injuries were reported in several parts of the downtown area.

Klęczar added, for his part, that the attacker's father legally owned more than 10 weapons and that the attacker himself also had his own.

At the family home, local authorities in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski seized seven weapons, bringing the total number of weapons recovered to 11, including four that were found in the attacker's possession in Krakow or inside his vehicle.

"This coincides with our records on the number of weapons for which permits had been issued, both to the perpetrator and his father," Prokopowicz stressed.

According to investigators cited by the Polish press, Michal O. had no criminal record and was a member, along with his father, of a shooting club.

Read alsoAt least six dead and 15 injured after an indiscriminate shooting in the historic center of Krakow

The Swit club in Starachowice – where the suspect is believed to have trained – issued a statement on Sunday saying that only "static shooting" is practiced at its facilities, which consists of shooting from a fixed position at a stationary target.

"He never received training in our center in dynamic, tactical or combat shooting modalities," the institution stressed.

"I would never have thought something like this could happen."

The deadly attack in the heart of Krakow is the latest in a series of events that have contributed to shattering the sense of security in Poland, a country that often prides itself on being safer than many of its Western European neighbors.

Mass shootings are rare in the country, but what happened in Krakow – the worst massacre of civilians in decades – adds to the concern caused by three attacks with knives and sharp objects that occurred in schools in the central province of Mazovia, in a span of four days in mid-October. Those stabbings, which authorities linked to extremist content online, left one person dead and several injured, including children.

In this context, Maria, a 20-year-old cafeteria employee in Warsaw, confessed to the Reuters agency that "recent events, not only this one, but also those that have been happening lately, are greatly affecting our sense of security."

Similarly, Witold Slowikowski, a resident of Krakow, considered it "terrible that this could happen in Poland, because something like this had never happened before in the country."

Weronika Filar, a 27-year-old employee, told AFP that she is "devastated" by what happened and anticipated that Krakow, "one of the safest places in the world, will never be the same again."

Malgorzata, whose daughter has a street stall selling obwarzanek, the typical Krakow donuts, expressed a similar shock to EFE. "I would never have thought that something like this could happen in this city. It has always been different from the capitals, a quiet place far from the political commotions of the capitals," he said.

Those same concerns were reflected in the press. An editorial in the Rzeczpospolita newspaper stressed that the mass shooting brutally ended an era in which Poland was considered an island of security.

"For a decade, we have talked about the external terrorist threat. However, terrorism has hit Poland from within," wrote the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.

Also read 'WSJ': "Teenage terrorists, a growing threat to Europe's security"

For Kacper Rekawek, senior researcher at the International Center for Combating Terrorism (ICCT, based in The Hague), the military equipment, weapons and general appearance of the perpetrator of the Krakow shooting were similar to those of other "far-right lone actors" who have carried out attacks in various places in Europe,

"Attempts had already occurred before, but now we can affirm that these types of attacks have managed to materialize in Poland," he warned the AP agency.

With Reuters, AP, EFE and AFP

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