Police said Monday that a gunman who killed at least six people during a deadly rampage in the Polish city of Kraków on Saturday has died in a hospital.
The rare mass shooting in the historic main square of the southern city left the country horrified and prompted two days of national mourning. Authorities said far-right ideology was likely the driving force behind the attack.
According to Polish public broadcaster TVP, the 24-year-old Polish suspect, identified as Michał Oksiński, was shot and injured by police during the attack before being taken to a hospital. There, he underwent multiple surgeries and had been in critical condition.
The mass shooting, which authorities are investigating as a possible terrorist attack, has caused shock and fear in a European nation with exceptionally strict gun laws.
“Tonight in Cracow thousands of Poles gathered to pay tribute to the victims of the November 7 attack,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who took part in a silent march through the city, posted to X on Monday night. “May they rest in peace.”
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a conservative political ally of US President Donald Trump, was also present at the march. Nawrocki, who has been locked in a bitter dispute with the pro-Europe prime minister, placed a lantern next to Tusk at the memorial.
Kraków police reported that the gunman drove into the city’s main market square, popular with tourists and locals alike, and began firing at random from his car, killing four women and two men. Sixteen other people were injured, among them two police officers.
An eyewitness, Maciej Mizejewski, told Reuters that he was coming back from picking up a pizza when he heard a burst of gunfire.↻ He remembered frightened tourists running and asking, “Gun?”
“I said no, impossible,” he said, adding that he ended up hiding as he waited to see what happened. When the sound of gunshots ceased, he came out of hiding.
“I saw four people lying in a pool of blood, being resuscitated by random passers-by,” he told Reuters.
Police Deputy Inspector Katarzyna Cisło told Polish news outlet TVN24 that the attacker was dressed in military-style clothing and used “military weapons.” His vehicle contained additional weapons and ammunition. According to TVP, however, he had no ties to the Polish military.
The bodies of Oksiński’s sister, mother, and father were later discovered at his home in the town of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, roughly 120 miles northeast of Kraków. Poland’s prosecutor’s office said Sunday that it is “highly likely” the killings were committed by the same person, though investigations were still underway.
The prosecutor’s office said eleven firearms were recovered from both locations.
Little is known about the gunman, and his motive was not immediately apparent. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński, however, said the shooter was fascinated with far-right ideologies and held “very radical views.”
An Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Monday that experts were examining the emblems on his clothing.
The state broadcaster reported that the man had held a firearms license since March and belonged to a shooting club with his father, adding that police had no prior knowledge of him before Saturday’s shooting.
According to Przemysław Nowak, a spokesman for Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office, the attacker fired at least several dozen shots during the deadly rampage.
Poland, like other European Union countries, has strict rules on acquiring guns, and very few people are permitted to own military-style weapons or carry guns in public.
According to the Associated Press, about 411,000 people in the country, whose population exceeds 37 million, hold gun permits.
