What to Know About the Mass Shooting in Krakow, Poland

Europe

Europe|What to Know About the Mass Shooting in Poland

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/08/world/europe/poland-krakow-mass-shooting.html

What to Know About the Mass Shooting in Poland

At least nine people were dead and at least 16 injured after shootings in Krakow and another town, the police said. The motive remains unclear.

*Police officers on Sunday near the market square Krakow, Poland, where a gunman opened fire from a vehicle.Credit...Omar Marques/Getty Images*

By Amelia Nierenberg

Reporting from London

Nov. 8, 2026Updated 8:09 a.m. ET

A gunman fatally shot six people on Saturday in the medieval heart of Krakow, Poland’s second-biggest city. Officials said the gunman was believed to be a 24-year-old Polish man, who was shot by the police and remains in the hospital.

On Sunday, the police said officers had found the bodies of the suspect’s parents and sister at his home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, a town between Krakow and Warsaw, the capital.

The motive for the shootings remains unclear. On Sunday, the Krakow branch of Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation and described the mass shooting in center of the city as an “act constituting a terrorist offense.”

Here’s what you need to know:

* What happened?
* Who are the victims?
* How did the police stop the attack?
* What do we know about the assailant?
* Are mass shootings rare in Poland?
* Could there be a political connection?

What happened?

Just after 3 p.m. on Saturday, shots were heard across the market square in Krakow’s Old Town, the police said.

The gunman fired “at random people” from a car he had driven into the square, police said. The square, Rynek Glowny, is one of Poland’s most-visited tourist destinations. On Saturday afternoon, it was busy.