Lars Thomas spoke about what he saw in Krakow (Image: YouTube)
Lars Thomas was sitting in a restaurant in Krakow’s Main Market Square when he heard loud shots. At first, the 36-year-old Welshman thought the sounds were connected to the city’s football derby, the ‘Holy War’, known as one of the fiercest in Europe. He soon realised he was witnessing a rare gun attack in the Polish city, during which at least six people were killed and around 15 were injured. Thomas and his family, including his three children under the age of five, were trapped inside the restaurant, unsure what to do next.
“We saw loads of people running from the window,” Thomas told the Express, adding that, at the time, he still did not know what was going on. He Googled ‘gunshots Krakow’, only to be told by an AI overview that he was probably hearing firecrackers.
“There was no news, obviously, because it was literally happening as we were there,” Thomas continued, adding that they were instructed to stay away from the windows and hide under the tables. Meanwhile, people inside the restaurant began to panic.
“I remember people crying on the phone. People were saying there are two bodies outside,” he recalled.
At that point, Thomas wondered: “My God, what do we do? Do we leave with the people that are running outside the restaurant? Do we just stay here?”
Over the next hour, the situation in the Main Market Square continued to escalate.
“More and more police came in. Black vans came in with people with loads of guns coming out. Then more ambulances. They were setting up loads of different sorts of inflatable buildings. A helicopter landed in the square.”
The family managed to leave the restaurant after about an hour and a half. “We ran across the square. There were lots of sirens everywhere, and police cars driving all over the road, and ambulances, fire engines; it was just quite mental.”
Thomas posted updates from the incident on his YouTube channel (Image: @Lifewithlars)
Lesia Dubenko witnessed the horrific event (Image: Supplied)
Lesia Dubenko, 32, was going for a walk with her dogs. As she approached the town centre, she was wearing headphones and listening to music. Soon, she saw people around her running, which she at first didn’t find particularly alarming.
“I thought it was some kind of group thing because there are so many people around here. You know, they get drunk, they do stuff.”
When she took her headphones off, she heard loud shots, which she also initially thought were fireworks following the previous day’s football derby.
Learning that it was a gun attack, the Ukrainian, who has been living in Krakow for the past four years, said she was “very surprised”.
She told the Express: “I’ve been in Krakow for a while. That’s kind of the safest place in Europe when it comes to this stuff. So, I was very surprised.”
She said, however, that she didn’t panic because the police handled the matter very quickly. Just hours after the attack, most people she saw remained calm.
“I saw that people were still calm, despite the whole event. Then I saw the police and how they handled it, and I thought to myself, well, probably this is why you’re safe.
“It’s probably not very comfortable for people to go out right now, and the taxi prices went up. But otherwise, I would say it’s pretty calm, and now everybody is probably just following what’s going to happen next.”
Emilia Tollefson was left traumatised by what she saw (Image: Supplied)
Emilia Tollefson, 18, was still hearing sirens across Krakow more than four hours after the shooting, living a 20-minute walk from the city’s Main Market Square.
The international student from the US was walking through the square with a friend on her way to a bookstore when “everyone started screaming and running”. They rushed into a nearby cafe, where they hid for around 10 minutes. She tried to stay away from the windows as she spoke to her parents on the phone.
Inside, people were confused and frightened. “Everyone was like, ‘What happened? What’s going on? ‘ Everyone was just very confused,” she recalled. Tollefson’s friend went to see the scene and later told her there was “blood all over the cobblestone”.
She eventually decided to take a tram home, despite feeling anxious about using public transport after hearing reports that trams were also targeted. She remained on the phone with friends, updating them until she arrived home safely.
Tollefson said the experience had left her deeply shaken and struggling to imagine returning to the square, which is usually at the centre of her everyday life as a student.
“With this new incident, every noise I hear now, I’m very startled, and so in shock.
“I’m very honestly very traumatised and right now can’t even imagine like walking back into the square,” she said.
With years of university still ahead of her in Krakow, she hopes that security will improve across the city.
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