McEntee praises Dublin Civil Defence for 'extraordinary' actions in helping Kraków victims

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN Affairs Helen McEntee has described the actions of the Dublin Civil Defence as “extraordinary” after they came to the aid of victims of the shooting in Kraków on Saturday.

Six people were killed and 15 others wounded when a gunman opened fire in a busy central square in Kraków, Poland, at around 3pm Irish Time.

The attack, which Poland’s defence minister described as an “act of terror”, happened in Main Square, which is in the heart of Kraków’s Old Town and is a major tourist hub in the country’s second-largest city. 

Speaking today, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee described the tragedy as a “truly devastating attack on innocent civilians who were going about their daily lives on a Saturday”.

She said she had asked her department to get in touch with the members of the Dublin Civil Defence who were there in a “personal capacity”, and praised the way in which the six members went in to help the victims.

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Civil Defence Officer James McConnell told RTÉ News that Civil Defence volunteers are trained to provide medical care, and they immediately went to help the injured people, including through providing CPR and stemming bleeding.

McEntee said: “I think it is extraordinary the way in which I suppose the values and the work that they engage in at home went straight into action in Kraków.

“They were there to support very vulnerable people who had been involved in that attack and to assist them. And so, obviously, I just want to thank them publicly.

“[I'm] very glad that they’re okay and they’re safe, but [I'm] very conscious that there were a lot of innocent civilians caught up in this, and [it's] obviously a very scary scenario for everybody.”

She added that her department would provide support as needed to friends and colleagues in Poland, adding that she has “every confidence” that there will be justice for the families affected.

Earlier this morning, authorities found three dead bodies at the 24-year-old suspected gunman’s family home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, a city about 150km northeast of Kraków.

Police said they were the bodies of his sister, mother and father, and they are believed to have been shot.