While the perpetrator of the Krakow attack died of his injuries on Monday in hospital, investigators are continuing their investigations to determine the motivations of the assailant, suspected of having been fascinated by far-right ideologies. The shooting, which left at least six victims, reignites political tensions in Poland.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 11:06

Bruised by the bloody shooting in Krakow which weakened the feeling of security of its inhabitants, Poland is preparing, Monday, November 9, to go through a political week of high tension.

Until now spared from attacks and little exposed to everyday violence, the Poles lost part of their illusions when one of their number opened fire on passers-by on Saturday in Krakow's market square.

Six people, including a 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman, died, and around fifteen others, including two police officers and five foreign nationals (British, Portuguese, Russian, German and Austrian), were injured. A massacre on a scale never before seen on the banks of the Vistula.

Death of suspected murderer

The perpetrator of the killing, a 24-year-old Pole, was seriously injured by the police. He died on Monday.

“The perpetrator of the tragic events died this morning in hospital,” police in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in the south of the country, of which Krakow, Poland’s tourist showcase, is the capital, said on X.

Identified by the Polish media by his first name and the initial of his last name, Michal O., is suspected of having shot and killed nine people in total, including his parents and his sister, and found them lying at their home, a two-hour drive from the Krakow location.

In military uniform, masked and helmeted, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he opened fire, from his vehicle, on passers-by near the market square of the old town popular with tourists.

According to the Minister of the Interior, the killer was "fascinated by far-right ideologies", but investigators believe that lengthy investigations will be necessary to understand his motivations.

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Terrorism investigation

An investigation into an act of a “terrorist nature” has been opened and the procedure for the homicide of his relatives has been added.

The death of the killer – who could never be heard – naturally puts an end to the proceedings against him, but the investigation continues, the prosecution stressed on Monday.

According to investigators cited in the Polish press, Michal O. had no criminal record. He was a member, with his father, of a shooting club, and 11 weapons were seized during a search.

"The perpetrator's clothes had many different emblems on them," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Galecka told radio on Monday. “There were numerous emblems and crests associated with various motifs, currently being analyzed,” she added without wanting to specify their nature.

The right and the far right singled out

In the former capital of Poland, which welcomed more than 16 million visitors in 2025, the market square was reopened on Sunday evening, allowing Krakow residents and tourists to gather there.

A country in Eastern Europe with 38 million inhabitants hitherto spared from attacks, Poland had not experienced such a massacre of civilians since the end of the communist regime (1944-1989).

However, acts of violence have increased recently with knife attacks perpetrated in schools, particularly this fall, and the political debate is hardening between the center-right and pro-European government of Donald Tusk, and the national-conservative opposition.

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Since the killing, voices within the centrist majority have denounced the flammable rhetoric of the right and the far right which accuses the government of "treason" and "coup d'état" after the intervention of the police at the Constitutional Court which it intends to reform.

Two days of national mourning were declared on Sunday and Monday.

With AFP

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