Poland began two days of national mourning on Sunday after a gunman killed six people and wounded 15 in Krakow’s Main Square, according to Associated Press reporting carried by CBC.

Prosecutors said Sunday they had opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder of numerous people, including police officers, with the attack “constituting a terrorist offense.”

The 24-year-old attacker drove into the busy square in the city’s Old Town on Saturday and opened fire before police shot and wounded him. He remained in critical condition after undergoing multiple operations.

Authorities also identified three people found dead at the attacker’s family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 150 kilometres northeast of Krakow, as his mother, father and sister. Police said they likely died from gunshot wounds. The supplied report did not establish who killed them.

Four women and two men died in the square, Malopolska regional governor Krzysztof Jan Klęczar said. Four victims were Polish, one man was from the United Kingdom and one woman was from another country that officials had not identified.

Two police officers who stopped the attacker remained in hospital. One was still in a coma, while the other had regained consciousness, Klęczar said. Officials appealed for blood donations for the more seriously wounded officer.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński described the attacker’s views as “very radical” and “ultranationalistic,” saying everything indicated he was fascinated by far-right ideologies.

Mourners left candles and flowers near the square, which remained partially closed Sunday morning as investigators continued their work. The hourly trumpet call from St. Mary’s Basilica was paused overnight in tribute to the victims — the first interruption since the Second World War, according to the report.

Sources