Polish Police published a timeline of the response to Saturday’s attack in Kraków on Sunday, 8 November. According to the statement, a patrol intervened and exchanged fire with the attacker in the third minute after the first reports came in.
Polish Police posted the statement on X on Sunday morning. The service presents it as a response to questions about the speed of the reaction to the attack in the Main Market Square.
Minute by minute
According to the police, the first reports reached the Voivodeship Emergency Notification Centre at 15:00:15. In total, nearly 40 calls were recorded. The subsequent course of events was as follows:
- 2nd minute – city guards arrive at the scene,
- 3rd minute – police officers intervene, an exchange of fire with the attacker takes place, officers chase him, and the duty officer directs further patrols to the scene,
- 4th minute – medical emergency teams arrive,
- 6th minute – the first units of the State Fire Service (PSP) appear at the scene.
Scale of forces involved
The police said that 30 police crews and 24 fire brigade units, with 62 firefighter-rescuers, were deployed to the operation. More than a thousand police officers worked on the incident, from the patrols that were the first to head to the scene, through officers securing the area and counter-terrorism units, to officers carrying out procedural actions together with prosecutors.
In the statement, the service stressed that the officers “did not calculate the risk” and intervened, putting their own lives at risk to stop the attacker and protect others. Two officers were injured.
Earlier statements and appeals
On Saturday, the Lesser Poland police reported that the first patrol began its actions 23 seconds after the report, and called reports of a delayed response untrue. The new statement puts these details into a single chronology. We have also previously reported on the police findings on the attacker’s citizenship and their denial of rumours.
The police are also organising blood donation drives for a seriously injured officer. Blood can be donated on Monday, 9 November, from 8:30 to 13:30, during a drive held by the HDK KSP Club. The Lesser Poland Police thank everyone who went to the Regional Blood Donation and Blood Treatment Centre in Kraków. The Main Market Square and the intersection of Dietla and Stradomska streets were closed again on Sunday for several hours due to the examination of the crime scene.
