Kraków shooting motive under investigation as ministers point to far right

Polish investigators are examining a possible far-right link to the 7 November shooting in Kraków, which killed six people and injured 15. The gunman opened fire from a car in the city’s main square and died in hospital two days later after being shot by police.

On the day of the attack, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said everything indicated that the man had been fascinated by far-right ideologies, though he added that this would need to be checked, according to Polish broadcaster RMF24.

Two days later, a national prosecutor’s office spokesman, Przemysław Nowak, said it was too early to establish the motive or say categorically that the man had been inspired by a particular ideology. He said investigators had found no obvious far-right or far-left symbols in the man’s flat.

On 10 November, Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek told Radio Kraków that the man’s computer showed visits to pages about Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right mass murderer. Żurek called right-wing extremism a strong line of inquiry and said the evidence supported Kierwiński’s early assessment, but that investigators needed to test other hypotheses. The visits alone do not establish a motive.

The investigation continued after the gunman’s death. Radio Kraków reported on 14 November that more than 200 witnesses had been interviewed and 10 injured people remained in hospital.