(OSV News) — Six people were killed and over a dozen wounded in Poland Nov. 7 when a gunman opened fire at random passersby in Kraków’s Main Market Square, turning one of Europe’s best-known pilgrimage and peaceful tourist destinations into a scene of terror.
Faced with horror unfolding just meters from his residence, the city’s cardinal urged his countrymen to stand together amid “terrible” violence.
“We do not want to be, we cannot be, and we are simply unable to be indifferent at a time like this. We want, we need, and we must stand together,” Cardinal Grzegorz Rys wrote from the historic Archbishops’ Palace of Kraków, located roughly 260 feet from the Main Market Square.
In his Nov. 7 statement, Cardinal Rys said that anyone could have been walking through the square when the shooting began, passing “through places where bullets had struck unsuspecting, innocent bystanders.”
Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Gdansk, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, also expressed shock at the violence.
“I stand in spiritual solidarity with all those who suffered in this exceptionally brutal act and support them with my prayers,” he said.
Scenes unimaginable for a peaceful, tourist city
Horrific accounts of witnesses of the tragedy started being published soon after the event, in a nation mostly spared of such violent terror events and considered one of the most peaceful places in Europe.
“He got out of the car and started shooting at people. He was firing at the outdoor cafe tables, where people were sitting and drinking coffee,” Dominik Bartelak, of Cafe Una on the Main Market Square, told OSV News. “Bodies were lying near our cafe. A woman was killed near St. Mary’s Basilica.”
He added, “A helicopter landed on the Small Market Square, and someone was being resuscitated right next to us.”
The shooting started on the corner of the main square where Bartelak’s cafe is located.
“If someone had been sitting in the chair by our cafe window, they would have been hit. A bullet went through,” Bartelak said. When he spoke to OSV News, Bartelak was still inside his cafe, comforting shaken employees and offering hot tea to police officers working at the scene.
Reacting to the tragedy, Bishop Artur Wazny of Sosnowiec wrote on X: “I am thinking of those whose lives were taken today with a brutality incomprehensible to the human heart,” and the families for whom “the cruelest reality is that the world will keep turning — only now, it will go on without someone who was irreplaceable.”
Suspect opened fire at random on passersby
The attack began shortly after 3 p.m., when a man drove into the Main Market Square from the direction of Slawkowska Street and opened fire on people passing by, according to police.
The death toll, initially reported as five, rose to six later in the afternoon. Fifteen people were wounded, most of them seriously, including two police officers. Shortly before 10 p.m. local time, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the suspect also killed his parents and sister before he left his family home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski.
Katarzyna Cislo, spokeswoman for the Kraków Police, said the suspected gunman was a 25-year-old Polish citizen.
“He was using a military-type long gun. A large number of other firearms, as well as ammunition, were recovered from his vehicle,” Cislo told Polish media.
Minister: Suspect fascinated by far-right ideologies
The attacker was dressed in military-style clothing and a bulletproof vest. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz strongly denied reports that the gunman had served in the Polish military.
“The man was not and is not a soldier in the Polish Armed Forces and has never had anything to do with the military,” he wrote on X. Police shot and arrested the suspect.
The motive for the attack had not yet been established, although Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the suspect had been fascinated by far-right ideologies and held “radical views.” The attack has already drawn tentative comparisons with Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist responsible for the 2011 mass killings of 77 people.
Special Sunday Mass in St. Mary’s Basilica
Cardinal Rys called for prayers for those killed and injured and asked parish priests to provide support and comfort to the victims’ families.
He invited residents to a special Sunday Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica, overlooking the square where the attack unfolded.
“Our faith ensures that we are never — even in the face of the greatest challenges — truly helpless,” Cardinal Rys wrote. He expressed hope that “the final word does not, and cannot, belong to hatred.”
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose condemned what he described as “a savage and murderous attack” that had shattered the country’s peace.
“America stands with Poland at this dark hour as Poland stands with her beloved citizens of Krakow,” Rose wrote on X.
Mass shootings are extremely rare in Poland, which the U.S. State Department describes as generally safe for visitors. In Warsaw, authorities announced additional security measures, including barriers along streets in the capital’s historic Old Town, following the Kraków attack.
Kraków is one of the most popular pilgrim destinations in Europe, with dozens of church architectural pearls around its Old Town, as well as places connected to St. John Paul II, who was archbishop of Kraków between 1964 and 1978, when he was elected pope.
Condolences poured in from across Europe
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among the many European leaders who condemned the shooting, calling it “a shocking crime.”
“There can be no justification for this attack, and we trust the perpetrator will face justice,” he wrote on X. “People have the right to safety.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed solidarity with Poland. “Shock and sorrow after the tragic shooting in Krakow,” he wrote on X, offering his condolences to the victims and their families.
Bishop Wazny concluded his message of condolences: “Lord Jesus, embrace those who are weeping, and teach us to be Your arms for Kraków.”
Katarzyna Szalajko writes for OSV News from Warsaw, Poland.
