Six people died in Kraków's market square. Three more were found at the gunman's home.

A 25-year-old Polish citizen in military gear fired into Kraków's Main Market Square for about three minutes. Six people died, sixteen were hurt, and police found three more bodies at his home.

Shortly before three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, a car turned into the Main Market Square in Kraków and its driver began shooting at people from the window. Police say the attack lasted about three minutes. When it was over, six people were dead and sixteen were wounded, among them two police officers, five foreign nationals and the suspect himself. The car crashed a short distance away, and armed officers shot and wounded the gunman as he fired back.

The dead were four women and two men. Three were Polish citizens, one was British, and two had not been identified by Sunday morning. The foreign wounded came from Britain, Germany, Austria, Portugal and Russia. One officer, named by the prime minister as Senior Constable Jakub Kulik, was fighting for his life after being shot three times. Donald Tusk called him and his colleague Artur Morański "true heroes" who "saved many lives".

Then came the second discovery. When police searched the suspect's home, they found three more bodies: two women and a man. Tusk said there was "much to suggest" they were the gunman's immediate family. Earlier, a tram driver had reported his vehicle being shot at near the square; the window of his cabin was shattered. The square, which draws around 15 million visitors a year, was locked down while bomb officers searched the car. More weapons and ammunition were inside it.

The suspect is a 25-year-old Polish citizen. He wore full military tactical gear and carried a military-grade weapon, but the government said he was not a member of the Polish armed forces. Police say he acted alone, and no name has been released. The interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, said "everything suggests" the man was fascinated by far-right ideologies and held "ultra-nationalist" and "very radical" views.

What Poland is being asked to absorb this weekend is that it happened here. "Until now in Poland we haven't had such drastic cases of terrorism," Tusk said. "That's what we have to call this cruel attack on people's lives here in Krakow." The defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, used the same word. National mourning runs through Monday. In Kraków it runs until 11 November.

Mass shootings are rare in Poland, a country of 38 million. But the country has been arming itself quickly. The number of legally registered firearms passed one million for the first time earlier this year, according to police statistics reported by Euronews and cited by the Guardian. Poland issued a record 50,700 permits in 2025, and the number of active permits is almost double the figure for 2015.

None of that explains Saturday. Polish permits are issued by police, require training and psychological checks, and are not the kind of licence that puts a military-pattern rifle in a car in a pedestrian square. Police have not said where the weapons came from, or how a 25-year-old in tactical gear came to have several of them. What is clear is that six people were killed in a tourist square in broad daylight, that three more were dead in the gunman's house, and that the ideology the interior minister described is a homegrown one.

That is the uncomfortable part for a government whose politics have been organised around external threat. Tusk said any "possible supporters of the perpetrator" would be detained and appealed to the public for information. But a lone gunman is the hardest case of all: no network to roll up, no cell to prosecute, just a person with weapons, a doctrine and a car.

Kraków's mayor, Łukasz Gibała, promised the city would stay open. "The square will belong to us again," he said. It will. But not before Poland works out what it missed.

Sources: The Guardian — Six dead after gunman opens fire in Kraków market square, with three more victims found at suspect's home, BBC News — Six killed in Krakow 'far-right' shooting, as three more bodies found in attacker's home, CBS News — Mass shooting in Krakow, Poland market leaves at least 6 dead, 15 injured; 3 more found dead in suspect's home