Briton among six dead after gunman opens fire in Kraków market square

Six people were killed and 16 wounded after a gunman opened fire in a busy market square in Kraków, authorities said, in what Poland’s defence minister called an “act of terror” on the people of the city.

The suspect, a 25-year-old Polish citizen, opened fire with an automatic weapon in the city’s main square at about 3pm on Saturday before being apprehended by police.

He was fascinated with far-right ideologies and held “very radical” and “ultra-nationalistic” views, the Polish interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, said at a news conference.

Four women and two men were killed, one of them a British citizen, Polish police said. Three of the victims were Polish women and the remaining two victims had not been identified.

Five foreign nationals from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia were wounded, a Polish government spokesperson said.

Hours after the attack, the prime minister, Donald Tusk, said authorities found the bodies of three of the suspect’s close family members – two women and a man – inside his home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, a city about 90 miles (140km) north-east of Kraków.

The ⁠injured also included two police ⁠officers, one of whom was in a serious condition after being shot three times in the exchange of fire with the alleged attacker.

A total of 13 people were hospitalised in serious conditions, authorities said. That figure may include the gunman, who underwent surgery after the attack.

It was unclear how many of the injured were shot. Two of them were treated and released within hours of the mass shooting.

Jonathan Balshaw, from Ipswich in England, was outside St Mary’s basilica in the square with his girlfriend when the attack started.

“We ran down the side of the church and through the side door and hid with several other people until the gunfire died down,” he told the BBC.

“A lot of shots were fired, more than 20, with it sounding like multiple different firearms – there were two distinctly different noises.”

Videos posted on social media by witnesses showed people running away from the square to take cover on small streets nearby, as well as first responders trying to resuscitate victims.

As it emerged that a British citizen was among the dead, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, paid tribute to the victims of the attack. “I’m shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting in Kraków today,” he said. “My thoughts are with the families of those who have lost their lives, everyone injured and all those affected by this senseless violence.”

A tram driver reported about 3pm that his vehicle was shot at from a man in a moving car while passing near the main square, the Kraków municipal transport company said. The window to the tram driver’s cabin was shattered.

The attacker wore military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest, the Kraków police spokesperson Katarzyna Cisło said. Police found other weapons and ammunition in his car. He kept firing at the police even after being shot himself, she said.

The attacker engaged in a “wild ride” around the main square, which is why people were wounded at several locations, Cisło said, adding that the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

The Polish defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, called the shooting an “act of terror” against the people of Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, which receives 15 million visitors a year, most of them passing through the main square.

The Kraków mayor, Łukasz Gibała, said the city would be in official mourning until Wednesday. He vowed that Kraków would remain open to visitors despite the tragedy.

“The square will belong to us again,” Gibała said in a video posted on X.

On Saturday evening, the government spokesperson Adam Szłapka wrote on X: “Today’s event in Kraków has shaken all of Poland,” adding that Tusk was “on his way to Kraków”.

The justice minister, Waldemar Żurek, wrote on X that authorities would “ensure that the perpetrator of this crime is held fully accountable and severely punished”.

The Warsaw mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, announced increased security measures, including road barriers, along main streets in the Polish capital’s old town.

Earlier this year, Euronews reported that the number of legally owned firearms in Poland exceeded 1m for the first time.

Poland issued a record 50,700 gun permits in 2025, and the number of active permits registered in 2025 was almost double the number registered in 2015, according to the police statistics cited in the report.

Sunday and Monday will be a period of national mourning for the victims of the attack.