WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A 21-year-old woman injured three people at an educational institution in the capital Warsaw on Saturday in the third attack on a Polish school in less than a week, police said.
Warsaw police spokesman Jakub Filipiak told The Associated Press that the attacker used “dangerous objects” to attack a 17-year-old woman and ultimately injured two other people, aged 17 and 24. No one suffered life-threatening injuries.
Police said on Saturday they had detained 76 people across Poland and inspected nearly 50,000 schools across the country to prevent further violence after two school attacks earlier this week.
Security measures were stepped up at schools across Poland on Friday, with some closed, many parents keeping their children at home and police patrolling educational institutions, after two school attacks earlier this week left one person dead and many others, including children, injured.
A 19-year-old student at a vocational school in central Poland’s Mazovia province attacked classmates, teachers and passers-by with sharp objects on Wednesday, injuring nine people before escaping and being arrested nearby. The next day, a 15-year-old boy killed a school administrator and injured two others in a knife attack at his former school in the same province.
Both attacks, carried out by Polish nationals, shocked a country where violence among minors in schools is a new phenomenon.
By Thursday evening, rumors that the attacks were coordinated and that more would occur on the culminating day known as “Bloody Friday” were spreading among parents’ online groups and mainstream media.
On Friday, 59 schools across Poland preemptively closed, most of them in the Mazovia district where the capital Warsaw is located. School principals sent out messages announcing enhanced safety measures, including additional school staff at entrances and voluntary backpack checks.
“There will be no compromises here. The safety of young people is paramount,” said Interior Minister Marcin Kierwi’nski.
Those detained on Friday included a 14-year-old boy from a central district of Warsaw who was found in possession of a knife with a hidden blade and 11 firecrackers, and a 16-year-old boy from another district of Warsaw who had a butterfly knife in his backpack. Others posted photos of knives online, threatened peers or threatened to attack schools.
The government said it has so far found no evidence that a cyber challenge to attack schools is underway. There has been no official confirmation that the two attacks are related; both perpetrators have been detained.
Parents across Poland now have to quickly learn how to talk to their children about school violence. Authorities said schools will continue to take extra safety measures and will organize crisis training. The Liberal government also pledged to continue working to pass a bill to block harmful online content.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “If this teenage attacker had live-streamed a crime online today, we would not be able to stop that content because we do not have access to the legal tools.”
The 15-year-old, who injured three adults during Thursday’s attack, wore a camera to record his actions before being restrained by school principal Krzysztof Ochma’nski. Ochmansky later told reporters that for a moment, the boy seemed to realize the seriousness of his actions and said he didn’t want to do it again.
“Once I made the connection, he asked me for help,” Ochmansky recalled. “He got to the point where he wanted a hug.”