In the case of the massacre in Krakow there is a new twist

Polish prosecutors said they currently have no evidence linking the man who killed six people and wounded 16 in a rare mass shooting in Krakow to any political ideology.

A 24-year-old Polish citizen died in hospital early on Monday after being critically injured in a shootout with police officers who detained him after an attack on the city's busy market square on Saturday afternoon.

Shortly after the attack, the bodies of the gunman's parents and sister were found in the family home in Ostrovets-Sventokrzyske, about 160 km northeast of Krakow.

Poland's Interior Minister Marcin Kirwinski said on Saturday that the gunman, who was reportedly referred to as Michal Oxinski, was carried away by far-right ideologies and held "very radical" and "ultranationalist" views.

Polish prosecutors have launched a terrorism investigation, which Justice Minister Waldemar Jourek says will continue despite the gunman's death and will aim to establish whether he acted alone or was inspired by any group.

At a press conference on Monday, however, prosecutors said there was no evidence linking the suspect to any specific political leanings.

“We have no data on the basis of which we can responsibly state that he was inspired by any particular ideology,” said Przemyslaw Novak, a spokesman for the national prosecutor’s office.

“It is too early to comment on the motives. We did not find any obvious symbols that are usually associated with any political movement, whether it is far right or far left.

An Interior Ministry spokesman told Polish Radio that the investigation had analysed “numerous emblems and patches” on Oxinski’s clothes.

Earlier on Monday, Jourek also called for "restraint" in the ongoing investigation. The evidence is being gathered, but I will not show it or divulge it. I ask for restraint, he told Radio Zet.

According to Krakow police spokesman Katarzyna Numbero, an armed man dressed in military-style clothing and a bulletproof vest drove at high speed into a square in the center of the Old Town, which is usually filled with tourists, and began shooting at random during a “mad drive” across the square.

The shooting has rocked a country deemed safer than many of its European neighbours and raised concerns after several stabbings at schools in October that killed one woman and which officials said were linked to extremist content online.