Poland stabbings driven by online glorification of violence, Tusk says
The PM was speaking after violent attacks at Polish schools this week left one dead and others injured.
Three violent attacks at Polish schools over the past week were driven by the glorification of violence online, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated. The incidents resulted in one death and injuries to others, including children. Tusk explained that these acts were often impromptu responses fueled by online activities during a crisis meeting with security services on Sunday.
Police have detained 117 individuals across the country for possessing knives or other weapons or threatening to assault schools or fellow students following a thorough search of tens of thousands of schools. A woman was apprehended on Saturday for injuring three people at a school in Warsaw, following a stabbing incident the previous day that claimed the life of a female caretaker.
Prime Minister Tusk emphasized that these attacks were not orchestrated by a large-scale group. Instead, he attributed the violence to a growing fascination with violence globally and in Poland, describing the actions as acts of nihilistic aggression linked to the extreme right. Some of the detained individuals are reportedly active in the ultranationalist environment.
Tusk pointed out a rise in online searches for Nazi-related content and the glorification of mass killers. On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student attacked nine people at a vocational school in Mazovia, while a 37-year-old caretaker was killed the following day by a 15-year-old at a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, north of Warsaw.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński reported that a 17-year-old was arrested in Sierpc, north-west of Warsaw, after allegedly expressing on school grounds a plan to engage in dangerous activities, indicating intent to harm someone. Thousands of Polish police officers visited schools nationwide to ease student concerns following the stabbings, which sparked rumors of a "Bloody Friday" with more attacks allegedly spurred by an online challenge.
Polish security services convened an emergency meeting on Sunday after receiving information about a possible attack on Prime Minister Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, with officials treating the threat as "deadly serious."
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