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Police block access to the main square after fatal shooting.
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Poland
Six people dead and fifteen wounded in Kraków shooting
“A man drove a car onto Krakow’s main square and began shooting at random people,” a Krakow police spokesman said.
LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago
SIX PEOPLE WERE killed and 15 were wounded in a shooting in Poland’s second city of Kraków on Saturday, police told AFP.
“A man drove a car onto Kraków’s main square and began shooting at random people”, a Kraków police spokesman said.
“There is one perpetrator, it is a Polish man,” another spokesperson said by phone.
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As a result of the incident, four women and two men were killed while 15 others were wounded, according to local authorities.
Police have reported that the man was wearing military style attire with military weapons found in his vehicle.
The gunman was “neutralised” by police officers and transported to hospital.
Polish interior minister Marcin Kierwiński said a police officer who was injured in today’s shooting is “in very critical condition”.
Kierwiński said the officer suffered “three gunshot wounds” and “surgery is under way”. He confirmed a second officer was also shot.
Police guard the access of an area in the historic center of Krakow where a gunman opened fire killing five people. AFP via Getty Images
Police have blocked off the main market square in Kraków following the incident.
Kierwinski told a news briefing this afternoon that the gunman was fascinated by far-right ideology.
“Everything points to the fact that the shooter was influenced by far-right ideology, a matter that will also be subject to investigation,” he said.
A “tragic shooting” took place in Poland’s second-largest city, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post on X.
“I am being kept informed by the Minister of the Interior about the situation in Kraków following the tragic shooting,” he wrote, adding that “the police are investigating the background and all the circumstances of the attack”.
Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki said he was “deeply concerned by reports of the tragic events in central Kraków”.
“My thoughts are with the victims, those injured and their families,” he wrote on X.
“I remain in contact with the relevant authorities and expect a full explanation of the circumstances
“The head of the National Security Bureau is on his way to Kraków. The safety of Poles is an absolute priority,” he added.
View of the storefront on Grodzka Street on which a suspect fired at in the historic center of Krakow. AFP via Getty Images
Police did not immediately advance any potential motives for the gunman.
Shootings are rare in Poland, an EU and Nato member on the alliance’s eastern flank that neighbours Ukraine.
The country was on high alert following a series of stabbings in October, which Tusk at the time denounced as part of a “cult of violence”.
Warsaw, a staunch ally of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, has repeatedly warned of Russian sabotage and hybrid warfare on Polish soil, accusations rejected by Moscow.
Shocked by news of a drive-by shooting this afternoon in central Krakow. My thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims & all who were injured. Our Embassy in Warsaw is monitoring the situation. Any Irish citizens in the area should follow the directions of local authorities.
— Helen McEntee TD (@HMcEntee) November 7, 2026
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said in a statement on X that she “was shocked by news of a drive-by shooting this afternoon” and that her thoughts were with the loved ones of those injured.
“Our Embassy in Warsaw is monitoring the situation. Any Irish citizens in the area should follow the directions of local authorities”, McEntee added.
Witnesses told AFP they saw people take refuge in shops and restaurants in the usually bustling streets around the Main Market Square.
“I saw a man shooting at people and walking around the square,” Annette, a woman in her 60s, told AFP.
“It’s a tragedy for Kraków, we’ve never seen anything like this before,” she added.
“We were at Auschwitz today. And it was only when we got here that we realised what had happened,” Stella, a 22-year-old tourist from Rennes, northwest France, told AFP, referring to the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp near Kraków.
“It’s very frightening to think that there are still risks in Europe -– risks of a terrorist nature,” she told AFP.
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