KRAKOW, Poland — Poland began two days of national mourning on Sunday after a 24-year-old man with far-right views drove into a busy central square in Krakow and opened fire, killing six people and wounding 15 others before police shot and wounded him.
The attack, which Poland’s defence minister described as an “act of terror,” happened on Saturday in the Main Square, in the heart of Krakow’s Old Town. The square is a major tourist hub in the country’s second-largest city.
As the authorities continued their investigations, the square reopened Sunday evening with mourners gathering to lay flowers and candles in honor of the victims.
St. Mary’s Trumpet Call, a traditional five-note melody played every hour from the highest tower of St. Mary’s Basilica on the Main Square, was paused overnight, the first time the call had been missed since the Second World War.
On Sunday afternoon, St. Anne’s Church in Krakow filled with mourners attending a memorial service.
Authorities also found the bodies of the assailant’s sister, mother and father at the man’s family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, a city about 150 kilometres (93 miles) northeast of Krakow. They likely died from gunshot wounds.
Woman injured by shrapnel while saving another
Witness Andy Hill told the BBC that he’d felt as though he was in a movie scene.
“It doesn’t feel real,” the British tourist said. “And the trouble is, you have such an instantaneous moment to make a decision: Run. Stand still. There’s an element of shock. But I just thought the easiest thing to do is dive through a doorway and just take refuge behind the windows.”
Warsaw native Magdalena Frączak, meanwhile, was visiting Krakow with her friend when shots rang out Saturday afternoon and the gunman drew closer.
“I threw an elderly woman behind the flower planter because she had become tangled in the blanket she had on her lap. I covered her with my body,” Frączak told The Associated Press. “I also saw him out of the corner of my eye — he passed just one metre behind my back. That’s why I have shrapnel wounds in six places on my back. Only after it had passed did I pull the woman up, and we ran into a café.”
On Sunday, she forced herself to return to the Main Square to grieve among other mourners.
“I can’t put it into words. Because I knew that I would never come back to Krakow if I didn’t come in here,” she said. “When I found out that they had reopened the Main Market Square, I told my friend that I had to come here.”
Maciej Sikorski, a Krakow local, also visited the memorial Sunday.
“I come here so as not to get caught up in a spiral of fear and anxiety,” he told the AP. ”In a situation like this, it’s all too easy to stop living — to start being afraid instead, and just vegetate. That is something I really want to avoid.”
American tourist Marylin Green mourned the losses in the “beautiful city” during her first trip to Poland that also included the capital.
“I’m Polish, my parents were from here,” she said. “I loved Warsaw. So I was really looking forward to coming here, too.”
Police officers described as heroes
Prosecutors said Sunday they opened an investigation into the murder and attempted murder of numerous people, including police officers, with the act “constituting a terrorist offence.”
Four women and two men were killed in the shooting. Three of the women and one of the men were Polish, Krzysztof Jan Klęczar, the Malopolska regional governor, said on Sunday. A man from the U.K. and a woman from Austria were also among the dead.
A video posted on social media showed a police officer repeatedly shooting the attacker, who was lying on the street. The officer later slowly collapsed to the ground.
The two police officers who stopped the gunman, in actions authorities hailed as heroic, remain in the hospital. They were both conscious by Sunday afternoon.
“If it weren’t for the efficient and selfless intervention of these two young men, the number of victims could have been significantly higher,” Klęczar said.
Michał Pędziwiatr and Mateusz Wierdak, two local surgeons who were having a bite to eat nearby, also stepped in.
Wierdak “took care of the officer who subdued the attacker because he truly needed urgent help,” Pędziwiatr told Polish news website onet. “Without protection, without gloves, he simply focused on the officer, stopping the bleeding in his chest. This probably saved his life.”
Five foreigners are among the wounded. They come from the U.K., Portugal, Russia, Germany and Austria.
The suspect is also in critical condition after undergoing multiple surgeries. There was confusion on Saturday about his age, with authorities first saying 24 and later 25. On Sunday they confirmed that he is 24.
The suspect’s dead sibling was a young artist studying at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts. “Nothing will ever be like before. The delicate tissue of our academic community was painfully wounded,” the academy wrote in a statement on Sunday, confirming that Magdalena Oksińska was a third year student and that, additionally, the sister of an academy employee was shot twice.
“Magdalena Oksińska, 21 years old, a queer person, was an absolutely talented painter, photographer, poet and writer,” architect Pavko Krajka wrote in a post on social media, accompanied by images of the artist’s colourful paintings. “Her death is a great loss for Krakow, Polish, European and queer culture.”
The mass killing marks a grim first for Poland
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the suspect holds “very radical” and “ultranationalistic” views.
“Everything indicates that he was fascinated by far-right ideologies,” Kierwiński said at a news conference Saturday.
Local officials in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski said they seized seven weapons from the family home, bringing the total number recovered to 11, including four found on the suspect or in his car in Krakow. Both father and son had gun permits, they said.
Around 411,000 people hold gun permits in Poland, which has a population of 37 million, and interest in gun ownership has been rising.
The Swit shooting club in Starachowice, where the suspect is believed to have trained, issued a statement on Sunday saying it offered only “static shooting,” which involves firing from a fixed position at a stationary target. The club added that the suspect “was never trained in our club in the areas of dynamic, tactical or combat shooting.”
Mass shootings are uncommon in Poland. However, in mid-October three attacks at schools in the central province of Mazovia took place within four days, leaving one person dead and many wounded, including children. The young attackers used knives or other sharp objects. Officials blamed the school attacks on online “glorification of violence,” and said that some of the attackers were active in the far-right environment.
The Krakow shooter’s military gear, guns and overall look were similar to those of other “extreme right lone actors” committing attacks around Europe, said Kacper Rekawek, a senior researcher at the International Center for Counterterrorism in The Hague.
“We have had attempts before, but now we can say that these kinds of attacks have become successful in Poland,” he said.
By Rafal Niedzielski, Claudia Ciobanu And Beata Zawrzel
Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
