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.

Footage that emerged on Sunday showed two police officers exchanging fire with the gunman. One of the officers then apprehended the suspect on the ground before firing his own weapon several times. The officer then fell down, apparently injured himself.

Michał Pędziwiatr and Mateusz Wierdak, two local surgeons who were having a bite to eat nearby, stepped in to help.

Wierdak “took care of the officer who subdued the attacker because he truly needed urgent help”, Pędziwiatr told the Polish news website onet.

“Without protection, without gloves, he simply focused on the officer, stopping the bleeding in his chest. This probably saved his life.”

Kulik, from the southern Polish city of Bielsko-Biala, was hit by three bullets and underwent surgery on Saturday. There has been a national appeal for blood donors.

Morański was shot in the chest area and also underwent surgery. Both men were brought out of medically induced comas on Sunday, Polskie Radio 24 reported.

Kulik is also a member of the volunteer fire service in Bielsko-Biala. “We’re very proud of him,” a volunteer firefighter from the city’s Leszczyny district told the local news website Bielsko.biala.pl. “He responds to emergencies just like we do.”

TVP World reported that Morański was from Powroźnik, a village about 90 miles (150km) south-east of Krakow and close to the border with Slovakia. A mass was held for him at the local church on Sunday.