Poland began two days of national mourning on Sunday after a gunman killed six people in Krakow's historic Main Market Square, an attack the prime minister has described as terrorism and which the authorities say was likely inspired by far-right ideology.

President Karol Nawrocki signed a decree declaring mourning for Sunday 8 and Monday 9 November, with national flags lowered to half-mast across the country. The city of Krakow has declared its own mourning period running until 11 November. Reuters reports that the square and surrounding streets remained closed on Sunday, with police allowing only essential workers through, many nearby cafes shut, and mourners placing candles in several locations around the area.

What happened on Saturday

The attack took place on Saturday afternoon, 7 November, when a man drove into the Main Market Square, one of Poland's busiest tourist sites, and opened fire at random from his car. Six people were killed, four women and two men, including a British citizen. Seventeen people were wounded, among them two police officers and the gunman himself.

Police shot and detained the suspect after a close-range shootout. The 24-year-old suspect remains in hospital in a critical condition, according to police and a local official. Prosecutors in Krakow have said the attack will be treated as a terrorist offence, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called it the first terrorism case of such scale in Poland's modern history.

Three more bodies found at the suspect's home

Hours after the shooting, police found three more bodies at the suspect's home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, his home town about 200 kilometres north of Krakow. Police said they discovered a 53-year-old man and two women, aged 52 and 21, in an apartment in the centre of the town, and confirmed they were the suspect's parents and his 21-year-old sister. Investigations into those deaths are continuing, and no motive for the attack has been established.

Officers praised as heroes

Officials and members of the public have praised the two police officers who confronted the gunman. Both were wounded, and police issued an urgent appeal for blood for one of them, who was described as fighting for his life in hospital. The officers have been named as Senior Constables Jakub Kulik and Artur Moranski. "They likely saved many human lives, disregarding the risk to their own," Mr Tusk said on Saturday.

A silence not heard since 1939

In one of the most striking marks of respect, the traditional trumpet call sounded from St Mary's church on the square was suspended for 12 hours to commemorate the dead, the first time this has happened since 1939, state news agency PAP reported. Flags at Krakow city hall were flown at half-mast.

Security has been tightened well beyond Krakow. In the capital, Warsaw, police said on Saturday they were strengthening security measures in busy areas popular with tourists, and barriers were installed on streets leading onto Krakowskie Przedmiescie, in the historic heart of the capital.

A shock to Poland's sense of safety

The attack has shaken a country that has long prided itself on being safer than many of its western European neighbours. Leading daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita said in an editorial that the mass shooting brought a "brutal end to an era in which Poland was considered an island of safety".

Public concern had already been deepening after a string of school stabbings in October that officials linked to extremist content online. A 20-year-old cafe employee in Warsaw told Reuters she "almost burst into tears" when she heard about the attack in Krakow, adding: "Recent events, not just this one, but things happening lately, are really affecting our sense of security."

Poland's Internal Security Agency and its Military Counterintelligence Service are supporting the investigation. Police are continuing a second, daylight examination of the square, and the authorities have appealed for witnesses and footage as they piece together the gunman's movements before the attack.