Poland on alert amid possible attack on PM, defense minister

Poland on high alert amid possible attack on PM and defense minister

The full report

Poland's authorities are on high alert after receiving information about a possible assassination plot against Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, according to DW News. The emergency meeting at the Internal Security Agency's (ABW) Counter-Terrorism Center was convened after police received the information, said Interior Ministry spokesperson Karolina Galecka. The meeting comes amid a wave of violent attacks at Polish schools this week, which have left at least one person dead and injured many others, including children. Poland, which borders Ukraine, has also been facing growing security threats from hybrid attacks by Russia in recent months.

The attacks at schools in Poland have been particularly concerning, with three incidents taking place within four days this week. The first incident was on Wednesday, when a 19-year-old student at a vocational school in the central Mazovian province injured nine people when he attacked his fellow students and teachers with a sharp object. A day later, a 15-year-old killed a school caretaker and injured two others at his former school in Leszczydol-Nowiny, also in the same province. On Saturday, a 21-year-old woman attacked an adult education school in Warsaw, wounding three other women.

Polish police have detained 117 people across the country for carrying knives or dangerous weapons, as well as for threatening to attack schools or students. Police checked 64,000 schools, most of them in central Mazovian province. Police said Friday that cybercrime investigators have found no evidence that a social media challenge is fueling the wave of youth violence, or that the attacks were coordinated.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the attacks were "spontaneous actions" that were fueled by rising "glorification of violence" online. "We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale," Tusk said during the government crisis meeting. "In the past years and months, we have noted — globally and in Poland — a rise in the fascination with violence," Tusk continued.

The Guardian — World reports that government spokesperson Jacek Dobrzyński said authorities considered there was a high probability the threats against Tusk and Kosiniak-Kamysz would have been carried out. Dobrzyński was speaking after an emergency meeting of security services, police and interior ministry officials on Sunday. He said information about the threat first reached the state protection service, which passed it to the police but gave no further details.

Poland has been on high alert after a series of school stabbings this week and fears of a possible Russian hybrid attack to weaken western support for Ukraine in its war against Moscow’s invasion. The country has been facing growing security threats from hybrid attacks by Russia in recent months.

According to The Guardian — World, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month that Russia was likely to intensify hybrid attacks by Russia on Nato’s eastern flank. He said Moscow was planning strikes with drones or rockets on European countries that back Ukraine, among them Poland, with the goal of weakening western support.

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