Kraków, November 7. A man drove a car into Kraków’s Main Square at about 15:00 local time and began shooting at random people.
Five people were killed, about ten were wounded and the attacker was detained, the Lesser Poland Voivodeship police reported.
Police officers fired at the attacker, who returned fire; he was wounded at the intersection of Stradomska and Dietla streets and taken to hospital, RMF24 reported. According to the radio station, police officers are among the wounded. Police denied reports that an officer had died and that there was a second attacker: the only known perpetrator is in police hands. Police say he is a Polish citizen.
Police said the shooter used a long-barrelled military-pattern firearm and wore camouflage, Izvestia writes. An RMF FM reporter names the weapon as an AR-15 carbine, but this has not been officially confirmed, RMF24 wrote; publications give the attacker’s age differently, 24 and 25.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the social network X that “the police are investigating the background and circumstances of the terrorist attack,” Izvestia quotes. The original uses the word zamach, which in Polish means both a terrorist attack and an assassination attempt. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński went to the scene, and Tusk also set off there. The death toll differs across Polish publications: police spoke of five, while Wirtualna Polska’s live blog says six people were killed, the outlet notes.
What we know now: According to Lesser Poland Voivodeship police, five people were killed and about ten were wounded. The attacker, a Polish citizen, acted alone and has been detained; he is wounded and in hospital. No motive has been named, and the investigation continues.
Background: The Main Square (Rynek Główny) is the central square of Kraków’s Old Town, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe; the city’s historic centre has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1978.
