Kraków gunman kills six as Poland opens terrorism probe

Six people were shot dead in Kraków's Main Market Square on Saturday and 15 others were wounded, including two police officers who stopped the attacker, Polish authorities said.

Prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation. Police said the suspect, a 24-year-old Pole, drove around the square firing at random with a semi-automatic rifle before a final exchange of fire in which he was wounded. France 24 reported 16 people injured, and Sky News said 16 were in hospital; the authorities' figure was 15 wounded.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the gunman appeared "fascinated by far-right ideologies." Police also found the bodies of the suspect's parents and a sister at his home, CNA reported.

A British man and an Austrian woman were among those killed at the square. Two days of national mourning began on Sunday, with black ribbons tied to the national flag and candles and flowers laid around the sealed square.

A special mass was to be held at Kraków Cathedral. "We want, we need and we must be together," Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, the archbishop of Kraków, wrote as he announced the service.

One wounded officer, Jakub Kulik, was named as the hero of the attack. Social media images showed him shooting and wounding the gunman after being hit himself. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: "Our highest praise goes to the heroic police officers who risked their lives in the line of duty."

Police appealed for blood donors for Kulik, and long queues formed at donation centres that said they could not cope. Millions of zlotys were quickly collected to help the two wounded officers.

Kraków residents described their shock. "It's one of the safest places on Earth genuinely... I did not expect anything like this to happen to us," Weronika Filar, 27, told the AFP news agency. Krzysztof Stepien, a 28-year-old part-time city guide, said: "Nothing like this has ever happened here, and I hope it never will again."

The attack struck Poland as it stands close to the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine war. The Rzeczpospolita daily called it "an attack on Poland, on our way of life," and CNA described the rampage as the country's deadliest in decades.