Poland mass shooting assailant dies in hospital, police say

The gunman who killed six people and wounded more than a dozen in central Krakow last week has died in hospital, police say.

“We inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died this morning in the hospital,” police wrote in a post on X on Monday.

The 24-year-old Polish man was shot by police officers and arrested on Saturday minutes ‌after gunfire was opened on people at Krakow’s historic main square. The man opened fire from his car, police said.

The square is a major tourist destination in the country’s second-largest city, and several foreigners were among the dead and wounded.

Investigators also found the bodies of the suspect’s sister, mother and father at the man’s family home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, a city 200km (125 miles) northeast of Krakow. They likely died from gunshot wounds.

Prosecutors on Sunday opened an investigation into an “act of terrorism”, and Poland’s interior minister said the suspect was fascinated by “far-right ideologies”.

The man carried out the attack in full military fatigues and wore “many different emblems” that investigators have “partially examined ⁠and interpreted”, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior and Administration told Polish media.

Four women and two men were killed in the shooting. Three of the women and one of the men were Polish, authorities said. A man from the United Kingdom and a woman from Austria were also among the dead.

The two police officers who stopped the gunman in actions authorities hailed as heroic were injured and remain in hospital. They were both conscious by Sunday afternoon.

Five foreigners are among the wounded. They come from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Germany and Austria.

Krakow attracts millions of tourists per year, and the city’s Main Market Square is a major tourist attraction often bustling with activity.

On Sunday, mourners laid candles and flowers near bullet holes at the square.