An anxious night in Krakow: police detain a man with a knife after a mass shooting

On the night after the shooting on Krakow's Main Market Square, which claimed the lives of six people, police used their weapons while detaining a 23-year-old man with a knife on Kapełanka Street. The police stressed that the incident was not related to a terrorist attack. Mourning has been declared in the city until November 11.

Aziz KarimovFirst published on tafs uz 8 November 2026 at 11:592 min read

The key facts

After the mass shooting in Krakow, police detained a 23-year-old man with a knife, firing warning shots; no one was injured
The police stated that the incident on Kapełanka Street was not connected to the shooting on the Main Market Square
The death toll from the shooting rose to six, taking into account three bodies found in the suspect's house; mourning has been declared in the city until November 11

Armed detention

In the Polish city of Krakow, on the night after the mass shooting on the Main Market Square, police detained a 23-year-old man carrying a knife. This was reported by the radio station RMF24, citing law enforcement agencies, as retold by Life.ru. After three o'clock in the morning, several reports came in about a man with a knife on Kapełanka Street; the arriving officers found a blade about 20 centimeters long. First, warning shots were fired, to which the man did not react; then one of the officers fired in his direction and missed, after which the young man threw away the knife and was detained. No one was injured.

Terrorism link ruled out

Katarzyna Cisło, a spokesperson for the police of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, said the detainee was taken to a hospital: preliminary reports suggest he may have mental disorders, but there is no precise information about his health yet. The police separately emphasized that the incident on Kapełanka Street was not connected to the mass shooting on the Main Market Square. It is important for the reader to distinguish between these two events: the knife detention was a separate incident that coincided in time with the investigation of the terrorist attack, and the police have explicitly denied any connection between them.

Shooting toll and mourning

The day before, in the historic center of the city, an armed man opened fire on random passers-by from a car; six people were killed and at least 15 were wounded; the suspect was detained after a shootout with the police. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the discovery of three bodies in the killer's house — according to preliminary data, they may have been his close relatives; the circumstances of their deaths are being established. The Russian Embassy reported that a Russian woman was wounded in the shooting. The authorities declared mourning in Krakow until November 11 and canceled municipal entertainment events.