Polish prosecutors prepare 6 murder charges in Krakow shooting

A gunman killed six people in Krakow's Main Market Square on Saturday, and Polish prosecutors opened an investigation Sunday, treating the shooting as a terrorist act.

Provincial governor Krzysztof Jan Kleczar said 15 people were wounded, while BBC News put the figure at 16. Police later discovered the suspect's parents and sister dead in his Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski apartment, with injuries preliminarily assessed as gunshot wounds.

"Until now in Poland we haven't had such drastic cases of terrorism... that's what we have to call this cruel attack on people's lives here in Krakow," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

Police said the attacker drove into the square Saturday afternoon and fired at people at random. The square is a tourist attraction in Poland's second-largest city. The attack lasted around three minutes, during which bullets broke shop windows and a tram was shot at.

Cezary, a university student aged 24, said he recognized the loud bangs as gunfire only after seeing four bodies in the street. A second witness told Polish news website Interia, "I ran to the police station in the main market square - when I burst inside, it was full of people hiding on the floor."

Police said they chased the attacker's car until it crashed, then he got out at an intersection and fired a semi-automatic rifle at officers. He wore a mask, military tactical gear and a bulletproof vest.

Images on social media showed two officers shooting at the attacker, with one wounding him despite being injured himself. Police found additional weapons and ammunition in the car, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said.

Officials said the suspect was a 24-year-old Polish man, although BBC News gave his age as 25.

Kleczar said the suspect owned a gun legally, as did his father, who had more than a dozen firearms. Father and son were members of a shooting club, and police seized seven firearms from the apartment, Agence France-Presse reported.

Police spokesperson Katarzyna Cislo said Sunday that the suspect remained in hospital after several operations. Polish law enforcement said his medical condition prevented formal detention, though police guard him constantly. He has not yet been questioned.

Investigators have not established whether he killed his parents and sister. Authorities have not disclosed whether he was affiliated with any organized extremist group.

Kierwinski said "everything suggests that he was fascinated by far-right ideologies" and that he held ultra-nationalist views. "The findings so far point to exactly these motives behind the attack," prosecutor Tomasz Waszczuk told ABC News.

Waszczuk said prosecutors are preparing six murder charges, potentially rising to nine if investigators establish that the attacker killed his family. "For now, the evidence collected does not indicate that other people were involved. Of course, we will continue to check this," he told the outlet.

Tusk appealed for information from the public and vowed that any possible supporters of the perpetrator would be detained.

A 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman were among those killed, Kleczar said. One woman who died remained unidentified Sunday.

Tusk named the two wounded officers as Senior Constables Jakub Kulik and Artur Moranski and said they "saved many lives." Both were in serious condition but no longer in comas, Kleczar said.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was "shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting in Kraków today."

"Our city will never be the same," Krakow resident Weronika Filar, 27, told AFP.

Two days of national mourning began Sunday in Poland, while Krakow's mourning period continues until Nov. 11.