Suspected gunman in Kraków mass shooting dies in hospital

THE ALLEGED PERPETRATOR of a deadly weekend shooting spree in Kraków has died, Polish police said this morning, two days after he was critically wounded in a shootout with officers.

“We inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died this morning in the hospital,” regional police said in a post on X of the 24-year-old Polish man who allegedly opened fire on Saturday in central Kraków, killing six people.

Authorities said the man had been “fascinated by far-right ideologies” and Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the shooting – the deadliest in the country since the end of communism in 1989 – an act of “terrorism”.

Six people, including two foreigners, were killed in the shooting spree, and about 15 others were wounded, according to authorities.

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The gunman is suspected to have killed nine people in all after the bodies of three people, his parents and sister, were found at their home two hours’ drive from Kraków.

The attack began on Saturday afternoon when the masked gunman drove into Kraków’s Main Market Square, a busy tourist destination in the historic city centre, and opened fire.

He was wounded during an exchange of gunfire with police and taken into custody. 

Polish prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation covering the shooting and the deaths of his three relatives.

Mourners laid flowers and candles in the square on Sunday in tribute to those killed.