Investigators are treating the deadly attack in Krakow as a terror incident, prosecutors said on Sunday, after at least six people were killed and 15 injured in a mass shooting authorities suspect was inspired by far-right ideology.
The gunman drove into the city’s busy Main Market Square at around 3pm on Saturday and began firing at random people from his moving car, the Małopolska police reported.
Police have only identified the suspect as a 24-year-old Polish national from the town of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. He was wearing tactical attire and carrying a military-style rifle.
The suspected gunman died in hospital from injuries sustained during his shootout with the police, police in Poland announced.
A British national was among the six people killed, police said. Five foreign nationals injured in the shooting came from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia, a spokesperson for the interior ministry said. The British national was not yet publicly named but was identified as a 32-year-old.
Krzysztof Jan Klęczar, governor of the Lesser Poland region, said the victims included three Polish women aged 47, 53 and 61, a 32-year-old British man, and a 51-year-old woman whose nationality has not been established. The sixth victim was a Polish man aged around 50, he added.
Prime minister Donald Tusk said that the bodies of two women and one man had been found at the suspect’s home, which is just under 125 miles north of Krakow.
“There are strong indications that they are members of his immediate family,” Mr Tusk told a crisis meeting.
Interior minister Marcin Kierwinski said their suspect held “very radical views” and “was fascinated by far-right ideologies”.
Polish media reported that the suspect’s 52-year-old father had 11 registered firearms and he owned the car, a black Subaru, that was used in Saturday’s attack.
Police also discovered three bodies at the family home of the 24-year-old suspected gunman in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, around 93 miles north-east of Krakow.
Officers said on Sunday that the victims were his sister, mother and father, who are believed to have been shot dead.
The assailant is believed to have used an AR-15 rifle, according to police, who found a military-style backpack, magazines and a bayonet in the boot of the car, according to Radio Kielce.
Defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, however, said the suspect wasn’t a soldier and had no links to the military. He described the attack as an “act of terror”.
According to local media, neither the suspect nor his father had a criminal record. The Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime was analysing the attacker’s online activity to see whether he belonged to radical groups.
Police said they started to receive reports at around 3pm that an assailant had opened fire from a car and had shot randomly at people in the square in Poland’s second-largest city, a popular tourist destination.
Unverified footage shared on social media showed people fleeing the scene as shots rang out and police sirens blared.
Other video showed two people lying on blood-spattered paving stones and bystanders trying to resuscitate them. A third person lay motionless on the ground nearby.
“I saw shots being fired from the driver’s side window, and smoke was coming out. I ran to the police station in the main market square; when I burst inside, it was full of people hiding on the floor,” a man who gave his name only as Konrad told news website Interia.
A 67-year-old man called Julek told Reuters that he saw a dark car appear suddenly before the driver started shooting at a group of people and drove off.
“If we had been two minutes earlier, we might have been shot,” he said.
Daisy Hersey, from Hove, told BBC News she was in a restaurant with her boyfriend Tyler when the shooting began.
She said: “Suddenly people started running into the restaurant. The door opened, I was sat right by the door, and I just heard these gunshots, but I wasn’t sure if it was gunshots. I thought maybe it was the tram or something.
“The people just piled in, and you could just see the fear on their faces.”
After it emerged that a British citizen was among the dead, the prime minister Andy Burnham paid tribute to the victims of the attack.
“I am shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting in Krakow today,” he said. “My thoughts are with the families of those who have lost their lives, everyone injured, and those affected by this senseless violence. The United Kingdom stands in solidarity with the people of Poland.”
The Foreign Office advised British nationals in Krakow to “follow the advice of local authorities and monitor local media”.
In a statement, foreign secretary Ed Miliband said the government “deeply mourns the British national and other victims who have died after the appalling attack in Krakow”.
“All of my deepest condolences go to the families of the victims. The UK stands resolutely in solidarity with the people of Poland,” he said.
Mr Kierwinski, the interior minister, praised the heroism of officers who apprehended the suspect.
“The police prevented a much larger massacre that could have otherwise occurred,” he said. “They fired shots at the attacker just three minutes after receiving the report.”
Mayor Łukasz Gibała said Krakow would observe an official mourning period until Wednesday, but vowed that the city would remain open to visitors despite the tragedy. “The square will belong to us again,” he said.
Expressions of shock and condolence flooded in from around Europe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the shooting “shocking”. “On behalf of the Ukrainian people, and personally, I extend my sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims,” he wrote on X.
European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it “a tragedy that will be felt far beyond Poland”.
Mass shootings are rare in Poland, where gun ownership is relatively limited compared with some neighbouring countries. The country has around 411,000 firearms licences for a population of approximately 37 million.
Did you see what happened? Contact james.reynolds@independent.co.uk
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