Gunman who killed at least 6 in Poland mass shooting dies in hospital

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WARSAW — A gunman suspected of killing at least six people during a deadly rampage in the Polish city of Kraków on Saturday has died in hospital, police said.

The 24-year-old, who officials said was apparently inspired by "far-right ideologies", was injured after opening fire in central Krakow, the second largest city in Poland.

Armed officers raced to the scene and engaged in a gunfight with the suspect, who was shot within three minutes of the attack beginning, preventing a further massacre, officials said.

The country was horrified by the rare mass shooting in the historic main square of the city in the country’s south, which prompted national mourning and heightened security.

The mass shooting — which authorities said they are investigating as a possible terror attack — has generated a wave of fear in a European nation with exceptionally tight gun laws.

Kraków police said the gunman drove into the city’s main market square, typically popular with tourists and locals, and started firing randomly at people, initially from his car, killing four women and two men, on Saturday afternoon. Sixteen others were injured, including two police officers.

The alleged attacker was wearing military-style clothing and used “military weapons,” Police Deputy Inspector Katarzyna Cisło told Polish news outlet TVN24. Weapons and ammunition were also found in his vehicle.

The bodies of his sister, mother and father were later found at the suspect’s home in the town of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 120 miles northeast of Kraków. Poland’s prosecutor’s office said Sunday that it is “highly likely” the killings were carried out by the same person, but investigations were ongoing.

Eleven firearms were recovered from both sites, the prosecutor’s office spokesperson said.

Little is known about the gunman, who has not been identified by police, and his motive was not immediately clear. But Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said that the shooter was fascinated with far-right ideologies and held “very radical views.”

Emblems on his clothing were being examined by experts, an interior ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

“These patches were associated with various motifs that are currently being analyzed by specialists,” Karolina Galecka told radio TOK FM, Reuters reported.

The suspect was a member of a shooting club and appeared to be highly skilled marksman, the club spokesperson Adam Chyb told Reuters on Sunday.

Poland, like other European Union countries, has strict rules about acquiring guns and very few people are allowed to own military-style weapons or carry guns in public. About 411,000 people have gun permits in the country, which has a population of more than 37 million, according to the Associated Press.

An off-duty surgeon who rushed to the scene of the shooting to treat victims of the attack, including a police officer, said he had just finished eating lunch with his family when he heard “what sounded like gunshots.”

Michal Pedziwiatr described being “in the eye of the storm” as he and a friend – also a surgeon – began providing care to the wounded.

Pedziwiatr told a press conference on Sunday that his friend, Mateusz Wierdak, was a “hero” for saving the life of a police officer who subdued the attacker, after he “applied pressure to the bleeding wound without any protective gear or gloves” and “stuffed gauze pads into the chest cavity,” Reuters reported.

The two wounded police officers, who Polish Prime ​Minister ‌Donald Tusk praised for also saving “many lives,” underwent surgery and remain in hospital, police said.