Polish police detain 76 and check nearly 50,000 schools after attacks

Police detained 76 people across Poland and checked nearly 50,000 schools as authorities sought to prevent further violence after two attacks at schools earlier in the week, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Security was stepped up at schools on Friday. Some suspended classes, many parents kept children at home, and police patrols were deployed at educational institutions.

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student at a vocational school in Mazovian province attacked fellow students, teachers and passersby with a sharp object, injuring nine people before fleeing. He was arrested nearby.

The following day, a 15-year-old killed a custodian and wounded two other people in a knife attack at his former school in the same province. Both attackers are Polish nationals and are in custody.

The attacks shocked a country where violence at schools by minors is a new phenomenon. By Thursday night, rumours circulated online and in media reports that the assaults were coordinated and further attacks would take place on a day dubbed “bloody Friday”.

Fifty-nine schools across Poland, most of them in the Mazovian region, suspended classes as a precaution on Friday. School directors announced tighter security, including additional staff at entrances and voluntary backpack checks.

“There will be no compromise here. The safety of the youth is the most important thing,” Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said.

Those detained on Friday included a 14-year-old boy in central Warsaw found with a knife with a concealed blade and 11 firecrackers, and a 16-year-old from another Warsaw district who brought a butterfly knife to school in his backpack. Other people had posted photos of knives online or threatened classmates or attacks on schools.

The government said it had found no evidence of an ongoing online challenge encouraging school attacks. Authorities have not officially confirmed a connection between the two assaults.

Authorities said additional school security measures would continue and crisis-response training would be organised. The government also pledged to renew efforts to pass a bill restricting harmful online content.

“If that juvenile attacker had streamed the crime online today, we would have been unable to block that content because we have not been given that legal tool,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

School director Krzysztof Ochmański, who overpowered the 15-year-old, later told reporters that the boy appeared to grasp the seriousness of his actions and said he no longer wanted to continue.