Six People Were Shot Dead in Kraków’s Famous Market Square — Then a Police Drone Looked Inside the Gunman’s Home

The first shots came from the driver’s side window of a moving car. One witness later told Polish news site Interia that smoke was drifting out after them.

It was just before 3 p.m. on Saturday in Kraków’s Main Market Square — one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, ringed by café terraces and watched over by the twin brick towers of St. Mary’s Basilica. Kraków welcomes some 15 million visitors a year, and most of them pass through this square.

For about three minutes, a 25-year-old man in camouflage, a helmet and a bulletproof vest fired into the crowds at the heart of Poland’s second-largest city. Six people were killed. At least 15 more were wounded. Poland’s defense minister called it an “act of terror.” And by the time night fell, investigators had found something that made the afternoon even darker — not in Kraków, but inside the gunman’s own home in another city.

Three Minutes on the Cobblestones

Police say the attacker drove onto the square and began firing “at random people from his car.” According to authorities quoted by the Associated Press, he stopped at several spots around the square and opened fire with an automatic weapon at each one.

Bullets punched through shop windows. A passing tram was hit — the Kraków transport company said the glass in the driver’s cabin was shattered, though no passengers were hurt. When the shooting stopped, images from the scene showed overturned café tables and belongings abandoned on the stones by people who had simply run.

Cezary, a 24-year-old university student, told the BBC he didn’t realize the loud bangs were gunshots until he saw four bodies lying in the street. “We were still hearing gunshots, a lot of people were screaming,” he said. He watched someone try to resuscitate a person covered in blood.

Jonathan Balshaw, from Ipswich in England, was standing outside St. Mary’s with his Polish girlfriend, Dominika. “We ran down the side of the church and through the side door and hid with several other people until the gunfire died down,” he told the BBC. He counted more than 20 shots, and said there seemed to be “two distinctly different noises.”

The witness who saw the smoke ran the other way — straight into the small police station on the square. “When I burst inside,” they told Interia, “it was full of people hiding on the floor.”

Two Young Officers Ran Toward the Gunfire

Polish police say their first patrol began responding 23 seconds after the first call. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said officers were firing at the attacker within three minutes, and the national police chief said 30 crews were sent to back them up.

Officers chased the car through the Old Town until it crashed near the corner of Dietla and Stradomska streets, a few blocks from the square. A firefight broke out on the street. Footage verified by BBC Verify shows an officer confronting the suspect as he lay on the ground and firing — then the officer himself crumpling to the pavement.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk later named the two wounded policemen: Senior Constable Jakub Kulik and Senior Constable Artur Morański. Both are under 30 and have served only a few years, a regional police spokeswoman said. One was shot three times and was described by a minister as fighting for his life.

“True heroes,” Tusk wrote in Polish. They had, he said, “probably saved many lives, regardless of the risk of losing their own.” He ended with a line meant for two hospital beds: “All of Poland is keeping its fingers crossed for you.”

The gunman was hit, captured alive and sent into surgery.

What the Drone Saw Inside the House

As the square was sealed off and the gunman’s car searched for explosives — none were found — counterterrorism teams were heading to his home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, the town where Polish media say he grew up.

They sent a drone in first.

Around 10 p.m. on Saturday, Tusk delivered the news. The drone footage showed three bodies inside the house: two women and a man. There was “much to suggest,” he said, that they were the gunman’s closest family. He warned there could be a significant number of weapons in the home.

Polish outlets including Interia and Polskie Radio, citing local reporting, said the dead were the suspect’s mother, father and younger sister. Authorities have not officially confirmed their identities. Wiesław Rogala, a local journalist who watched counterterrorism officers go in through the balcony and the door, told TVP Info the town was horrified — and stunned, because the young man “did not give the impression of a potential murderer.”

Investigators have not said when the three died. But if those reports hold, the gunman drove away from a house holding his dead family — toward the city where, according to Interia, his sister had been studying.

The Sport Shooter With an Arsenal in the Trunk

Polish authorities have described the attacker only as a 25-year-old Polish man; Polish media have identified him as Michał O. and give his age as 24. Interia reported that he was a sport shooter who trained at a club in nearby Starachowice, had two firearms registered in his own name, and that his 53-year-old father had 11 guns registered — along with the car used in the attack. More than a dozen weapons were in the trunk, the outlet said. Officials confirmed he was not a soldier.

Kierwiński said everything suggested the gunman was “fascinated by far-right ideologies” and held “very radical,” “ultra-nationalist” views.

“Until now in Poland we haven’t had such drastic cases of terrorism,” Tusk said. “That’s what we have to call this cruel attack on people’s lives here in Kraków.” Earlier this year, the number of legally owned firearms in Poland passed one million for the first time, with a record 50,700 gun permits issued in 2025, according to police statistics cited by Euronews.

Of the six people killed — four women and two men — three were Polish and one was British. The other two had not yet been identified. The wounded included visitors from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia. U.S. Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose called it a “savage and murderous attack,” and the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said it was “a tragedy that will be felt far beyond Poland.”

A City in Mourning Until Independence Day

Tusk has vowed that any possible supporters of the attacker will be detained, and has asked the public for information. A massive armed police presence spread across Kraków on Saturday evening, and security was stepped up in Warsaw and other cities.

Poland will hold two days of national mourning on Sunday and Monday. Kraków Mayor Łukasz Gibała has declared the city in mourning until Wednesday, November 11 — Poland’s Independence Day.

On Saturday night, the square beneath St. Mary’s towers belonged to armed police. Somewhere across the city, the two young officers who ran toward the gunfire were still in serious condition — and an urgent call had gone out, Polish broadcaster RMF FM reported, for AB-positive blood for Jakub Kulik.