Donald Tusk has linked three attacks at Polish schools to the glorification of violence online. According to the BBC, the Polish prime minister made the remarks during an emergency meeting with the security services on Sunday 11 October. One woman was killed and other people, including children, were injured in the incidents described by the broadcaster.
Tusk said such acts were often spontaneous and inspired by online activity, rather than the work of a large organised group. He also said some of those detained were active in far-right circles. According to his remarks, police had observed growing online interest in Nazi content and mass killers. These are the prime minister’s assessments, not independently established motives for each attacker.
117 people detained across Poland
The BBC reports that police have detained 117 people across Poland in connection with possession of knives or other weapons, or threats to attack schools or fellow pupils. The figure covers several different grounds for detention: it does not mean that 117 people carried out attacks on educational institutions.
Thousands of police officers visited schools across the country after the earlier attacks to reassure pupils, according to the BBC. The police response therefore concerns not only the attacks themselves, but also threats against schools and the children who attend them.
One of the incidents was Saturday’s attack at an educational institution in Warsaw, in which three people were injured. A woman was detained afterwards. The BBC also describes an attack at a vocational school in the Mazovia region, where nine people were injured, and a fatal attack on a female member of staff at a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny.
The prime minister has pointed to the internet as a possible source of inspiration for violence, but has not described the incidents as the work of a single large, organised group. Nor is there confirmation that rumours of further attacks as part of a supposed online challenge reflect a genuinely organised campaign.
