One of two surgeons who treated victims on the streets in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Krakow, Poland said his colleague “undoubtedly” saved the life of a gravely injured police officer.

The pair were eating near the city’s Main Market Square on Saturday when a gunman began firing at random, killing six people and injuring 15.

The doctors raced to treat both the attacker and two officers shot while subduing the perpetrator.

On Sunday, the officers – both hailed as “true heroes” by the prime minister for preventing further deaths – emerged from comas.

Prosecutors launched a terror investigation after ministers previously said the 24-year-old Polish attacker – who remains in a critical condition – was apparently inspired by “far-right ideologies”.

A British national and Austrian woman were among those killed alongside four Poles.

Professor Michal Pędziwiatr was having lunch with a colleague, named by local media as Dr Mateusz Wierdak, and their families in central Krakow when they heard gunshots.

Pędziwiatr told the BBC: “We saw the shooting attack. And what a surgeon can do in a situation like this?… We decided to help the victims as soon as possible.

“We rushed into the area where the shooting was and started our rescue, because there were no ambulances available, there were no professionals around.”