Two Polish police officers who were injured as they pursued and detained the gunman in Kraków on Saturday have been hailed as heroes.

One of them is Jakub Kulik, a former paratrooper and volunteer firefighter, who was left critically injured after a close-range exchange of fire with the suspect, a 24-year-old Polish national who killed six and injured 17 in an attack believed to have been inspired by far-right ideologies.

The other injured police officer is Artur Morański. Both are under 30 years old, the Polish news network TVP World reported.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Saturday in a post on X: “They probably saved many human lives, disregarding the risk to their own.”

The Polish justice minister, Waldemar Żurek, said the rapid response and heroism of the two police officers “prevented further human casualties”.

Police arrived at the scene 23 seconds after receiving the first emergency call from Kraków’s main square, where the suspect was shooting at random from his car.

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