Polish prime minister links recent school stabbings to online glorification of violence
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the recent knife attacks at schools were largely spontaneous acts inspired by extremist content on the internet, and police have detained over a hundred suspects.
Three separate knife attacks at schools in Poland this week resulted in one death and multiple injuries, prompting Prime Minister Donald Tusk to attribute the incidents to the online glorification of violence. During a crisis meeting with security services, Tusk said the assaults were "very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity" and stressed that they were not coordinated by any large-scale group.
Police have arrested 117 individuals nationwide for possession of knives or other weapons, or for threatening attacks on schools or fellow students, after conducting searches in tens of thousands of schools. A woman was detained after injuring three people in an attack on a 17-year-old girl at an educational institution in Warsaw.
The attacks included a 19-year-old student who injured nine people at a vocational school in the Mazovian province, and a 15-year-old who entered a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, killing a 37-year-old caretaker. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński reported the detention of a 17-year-old in Sierpc who allegedly announced plans to commit a dangerous act on school grounds.
Tusk described the incidents as "nihilistic violence" linked to the extreme right, noting that some detainees are active in ultraright circles and that online searches for Nazi material and mass-killer figures have risen. Thousands of police officers visited schools across the country to reassure students amid rumors of a coordinated "Bloody Friday" challenge.