Europe

Kraków gunman who killed six dies in hospital

Polish prosecutors keep terrorism investigation open to establish whether he acted alone, 24-year-old had no criminal record and held a valid firearms licence

Images

People look at tributes left at a makeshift memorial in the market square after the shooting. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images People look at tributes left at a makeshift memorial in the market square after the shooting. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images theguardian.com
A view of the empty square after the attack. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images A view of the empty square after the attack. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images theguardian.com
Candles and flowers are placed in the market square in Kraków after the shooting. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/Reuters Candles and flowers are placed in the market square in Kraków after the shooting. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/Reuters theguardian.com
A bullet hole at the scene of the shooting. Photograph: Wojtek Radwański/AFP/Getty Images A bullet hole at the scene of the shooting. Photograph: Wojtek Radwański/AFP/Getty Images theguardian.com
Chairs lie scattered across a cafe terrace in the square the day after the shootings. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/AP Chairs lie scattered across a cafe terrace in the square the day after the shootings. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/AP theguardian.com

The gunman who killed six people in Kraków's main market square has died in hospital, Małopolska police announced on Monday. The 24-year-old Polish national, who has not been officially named, was wounded in a shootout with officers during Saturday's attack and died of his injuries early on Monday morning.

Polish prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation, and justice minister Waldemar Żurek said the case will continue despite the suspect's death, aiming to establish whether he acted alone or was inspired by any group. The gunman wore military-style clothing and a bulletproof vest bearing many different emblems, which interior ministry spokesperson Karolina Gałecka said are being examined and interpreted by specialists. Interior minister Marcin Kierwiński had already told reporters on Saturday that the gunman was fascinated by far-right ideologies and held 'very radical' and 'ultra-nationalistic' views. Żurek, by contrast, told Radio Zet: 'Evidence is being collected, but I will not show or disclose it. I ask for restraint.'

The gunman drove at high speed into the old-town square, usually packed with tourists, and began shooting at random in what police spokesperson Katarzyna Cisło called a 'wild ride' around the square. He kept firing after police wounded him and was stopped only in the exchange of fire. Soon after the attack, the bodies of his parents and sister were found at the family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 100 miles north-east of Kraków. Police said they had probably died of gunshot wounds.

Among the six dead are a 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman; the other four were Polish nationals. Five of the sixteen injured came from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia, and fifteen of them were in a stable condition by late Sunday. Two police officers wounded in the shootout — Jakub Kulik, a former paratrooper and volunteer firefighter, and Artur Morański — were brought out of medically induced comas on Sunday and have been hailed for their rapid response and for preventing further casualties.

The shooting has unsettled a country that considers itself safer than most of its European neighbours, and follows several school stabbings in October that left one woman dead and that officials linked to extremist content online.

The gunman had no criminal record. He held a valid firearms licence.