Poland Deploys 24,000 Police Officers After School Stabbings

By Staff, Agencies

Poland has deployed 24,000 police officers nationwide following a series of school stabbings and online threats, triggering a sweeping security operation that has already resulted in dozens of arrests.

The emergency measures follow three stabbing attacks in four days that left one person dead and more than a dozen injured.

A surge in online threats of further violence has heightened public alarm, with some schools suspending classes and parents keeping children at home.

Police said Monday that officers had carried out nearly 80,000 inspections of educational institutions, detained 135 people, and identified 311 suspected criminal offenses. Officers are continuing to monitor online platforms for threats around the clock.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski ordered the nationwide operation Sunday, increasing police patrols inside and around schools.

“There will be no tolerance for any attacks on Polish children, nor for the descent of public life into anarchy,” he told state broadcaster TVP Info.

Several teenagers have also been detained over suspected plans for attacks or violent online threats.

In one case, investigators said a boy recreated his school in the online game Roblox and simulated attacks against fellow students. Police said they found a firearm, ammunition, and knives in his possession.

The security crackdown follows three stabbing incidents within less than a week. On Wednesday, a 19-year-old attacked students, teachers, and passersby at a vocational school in Ostroleka, north of Warsaw, injuring nine people before being arrested.

The following day, a 15-year-old former pupil wearing a helmet-mounted camera fatally stabbed a school caretaker and wounded two teachers in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of the capital.

On Saturday, three people were injured in another stabbing at a further education college in Warsaw, with a woman detained in connection with the attack.

The violence was followed by social media threats warning of a “Bloody Friday” targeting schools. Pri

me Minister Donald Tusk has warned of a growing “fascination with violence” among young people, describing it as a disturbing trend in Poland and internationally.