Warsaw, an ally of Ukraine since the Russian invasion of 2022, has repeatedly warned of acts of sabotage and a hybrid war that it attributes to Moscow, accusations rejected by Russia. Nothing in the information released on Saturday links the shooting to those warnings.
Police officers are among the victims. One was struck by a projectile; another, hit three times, is in serious condition, the interior minister said. A police statement had already reported that several officers were among the injured.
Three bodies were found at his home: two women and one man. The head of government, at a news conference in Krakow, said they were probably “relatives” of the suspect.
At the scene, a journalist described people lying on the ground, numerous emergency vehicles, armed police officers and helicopters flying over the neighborhood.
The suspect, a Polish citizen, acted alone, police said. Neutralized and wounded by gunfire, he was taken to hospital, the spokesperson said.
The toll, initially put at five dead, rose in the early evening: one of the injured people died. Six people are dead, four women and two men.
A man of Polish nationality killed at least six people on Saturday, November 7, by opening fire at random on passersby in the center of Krakow, Poland’s second-largest city. He was arrested after being neutralized by police, a law-enforcement spokesperson said. On Saturday evening, the interior minister said that 16 people were hospitalized, including five foreigners. Police had previously reported at least six dead and 15 injured.
The events took place around 3 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT). According to police, the man drove onto the main market square, in the heart of the old town, then began firing “at random” at passersby. “I saw a man go around the square and shoot at people,” Annette, a witness in her sixties, said at the scene.