Krakow (Poland) (AFP) – Flags at half mast, candles and contemplation: Poland in mourning woke up shocked on Sunday, the day after the massacre perpetrated in Krakow by a young man “fascinated” by far-right ideas, who killed six people and injured fifteen others.

Published on: 08/11/2026 - 11:04

The killer is suspected of having killed a total of nine people after his parents and sister were discovered lying at their home with gunshot wounds, a two-hour drive from Krakow.

The market square, in the heart of the old town popular with tourists, remained closed to visitors on Sunday morning, and its cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops were mostly closed, according to AFP journalists.

Residents asked the police officers on duty to be able to cross the cordon to place a candle at the scene of the tragedy, to no avail.

The investigators retraced the route of the killer, looking for clues and testimonies.

“I am devastated. Our city will never be the same again after what happened yesterday,” Weronika Filar, a 27-year-old employee, testified to AFPTV on Sunday. “It’s one of the safest places in the world.”

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Eastern European country of 38 million people ravaged by the Nazis during World War II has returned to war on its borders. It is nevertheless considered safe and acts of violence are relatively rare.

Several knife attacks committed against schools by young attackers have occurred in recent months, motivated according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk by "a cult of violence" maintained on social networks.

But the Poles had not experienced such a massacre of civilians since the end of the communist regime (1944-1989).

“For a good decade, we have been talking about the external terrorist threat. However, terrorism has struck Poland from within,” noted the leading daily Gazeta Wyborcza on Sunday.

Measure of the tragedy: the bugle sounded every hour by the firefighters on duty from the bell tower of Saint Mary's Church, on Krakow's market square, has not sounded since Saturday evening, a first since 1939.

Two days of national mourning were declared on Sunday and Monday. The flags are at half-mast, the radio programs are disrupted.

Ultranationalist ideas

It was around 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) on Saturday when the assailant appeared in a car near the square and fired randomly at passers-by, tourists, taxi drivers and even drivers of the city's emblematic horse-drawn carriages.

The police intervened within minutes. A chase then began between the attacker, driving a black Subaru, and a crew of local police.

At an intersection, the man hit a stationary vehicle. In military uniform, masked, helmeted, wearing a tactical vest, he got out of his car and exchanged fire with two police officers. He was armed with an AR-15 type semi-automatic rifle.

The two agents were hit by his shots but one of them, despite his injuries, managed to neutralize him.

The five injured foreigners are of British, Portuguese, Russian, German and Austrian nationality, police told the PAP agency on Sunday.

Ten Poles were also injured, including two police officers.

The state of health of the 15 people hospitalized with gunshot wounds improved slightly overnight but all are not yet out of danger, according to a police spokeswoman cited by Polish media.

Among the six people who died were two foreigners - a British man and a woman of unknown nationality.

The shooter, who underwent surgery, remained in critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the police spokesperson.

The investigators, convinced that he acted alone, are working to determine his motivations and his psychological profile.

Identified in the press by his first name and the initial of his last name - Michal O., born in 2002, lived with his parents and his sister in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, a medium-sized town located two hours' drive from Krakow.

Their bodies were found at their home.

“We discovered the bodies of three people in an apartment in the center of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski: a 53-year-old man, and two women aged 52 and 21. They are the parents and the sister” of the author, the police said in a press release on Sunday, specifying that they had bullet wounds.

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.

The Minister of the Interior put forward on Saturday evening the hypothesis of a man sensitive to “ultranationalist” ideas.

“Everything indicates that he was fascinated by far-right ideologies,” said Marcin Kierwinski.

The prosecution could announce on Sunday the opening of an investigation for “act of terrorism”.

© 2026 AFP

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