Three violent attacks at Polish schools this week were driven by the “glorification of violence” online, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday. The attacks left one woman dead and others injured, including children.
Speaking during a crisis meeting with security services, Tusk said such incidents were “very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity.” He added that the country was not dealing with any group organised on a large scale.
Online content and far-right links cited by Tusk
Tusk said the attacks were acts of “nihilistic violence” associated with the extreme right. He said some of those detained were active in the ultra-right environment. Police had also noticed a rise in online searches for Nazi content and for “mass killers who have become idols online,” he said.
Tusk also said that, in recent years and months, there had been a rise in fascination with violence, both globally and in Poland.
Arrests and nationwide school searches across Poland
Police have arrested 117 people across the country for possessing knives or other weapons, or for threatening to attack schools or fellow students. The arrests followed searches of tens of thousands of schools.
Thousands of officers visited schools nationwide to reassure pupils after rumours spread of a “Bloody Friday” of further attacks linked to a supposed online challenge.
In Warsaw, a woman was arrested on Saturday after injuring three people while attacking a 17-year-old girl at an educational institution. Earlier in the week, a 19-year-old student injured nine people at a vocational school in Mazovian province.
The following day, a 15-year-old entered a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, north of Warsaw, and a 37-year-old caretaker was killed. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said a 17-year-old had been detained in Sierpc, north-west of Warsaw, after allegedly saying on school grounds that he planned to do something dangerous and intended to harm someone.
Security services respond to threat against ministers
Security services convened a special meeting on Sunday after receiving information about a potential attack on Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, a spokesperson said. A special services spokesman said officials were treating the threat as “deadly serious.”
