Three Minutes in Krakow: Shooting at Poland's Most Crowded Square

Three minutes — that is how long the Krakow shooting lasted before it was stopped.

On the afternoon of November 7, 2026, a 24-year-old Polish man drove to Krakow's Main Market Square and opened fire on the crowd with an AR-15-style rifle. Six people were killed — four women and two men, including one British citizen — and sixteen were wounded, among them two police officers. Police returned fire within about three minutes; the suspect was wounded, arrested and remains in hospital. At his home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, some 200 km away, police found three more bodies, believed to be relatives. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the attack an act of terrorism; Poland observed national mourning on November 8–9.

The deeper layer is urban security. The Main Market Square is an open space receiving tens of thousands of people a day — no checkpoints, no barriers. The attack exposed the structural vulnerability of Europe's 'soft targets', and the problem its cities now face: adding security without turning squares into fortresses, when openness is the very soul of such places.

Watch the video: https://youtube.com/shorts/JZod8K3yP6A

We analyze warfare to cherish peace.