Poland holds emergency security meeting over possible attack on PM Donald Tusk, defence minister

Polish security services were due to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday after police received information about a possible attack on Prime Minister Donald Tusk and defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, authorities said.The exact nature and origin of the reported threat were not immediately clear. The meeting was ordered by interior minister Marcin Kierwiński and Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister-coordinator of special services, according to a statement posted on X by Interior Ministry spokesperson Karolina Galecka.“Following information received by the Polish Police regarding a possible attack ...interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, and the minister-coordinator of Special Services, Tomasz Siemoniak, have ordered action to be taken in this matter,” Galecka wrote.She said a meeting would take place at 11 am local time at the Internal Security Agency’s Counter-Terrorism Centre.Private broadcaster Radio Zet reported that police had received an email containing information about the threat.As per news agency AP, police had received information about a possible attack, but authorities had not released further details.Poland on alert after attacks at schoolsThe security alert comes as Polish authorities remain on high alert following a series of violent incidents at schools in the central Mazovian province over four days last week.Three attacks left one person dead and several others injured, including children. On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student at a vocational school wounded nine people, including fellow students, teachers and passersby, with a sharp object. He was arrested nearby.The following day, a 15-year-old killed a school caretaker and wounded two other people in a knife attack at his former school. On Saturday, a 21-year-old woman wounded three people at a post-secondary school in Warsaw.By Sunday morning, police had detained 117 people across Poland for carrying knives or other dangerous weapons, or for threatening attacks against schools or fellow students. Authorities had checked around 64,000 schools, according to AP.Speaking at a crisis meeting with government and security officials on Sunday, Tusk said the school attacks were “spontaneous acts” driven by the online “glorification of violence”.“We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale,” he said, adding that authorities had observed a rise in the fascination with violence both in Poland and globally.Tusk said some of those detained were active in far-right circles. He also pointed to increased online searches for Nazi-related content and mass killers who had become idols on the internet.Concerns over wider security threatsPoland has also raised concerns about security risks linked to its proximity to the war in Ukraine. In September, Tusk warned that Russia was likely to intensify hybrid attacks against Nato’s eastern flank.In August, police detained a 23-year-old man accused of calling for the assassination of senior Polish politicians, Reuters reported.Tusk had also said in 2024 that he received threats following the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.The latest security meeting comes amid concerns about possible copycat violence following the school attacks. Rumours of coordinated incidents and further attacks on what was described online as “bloody Friday” had circulated in parents’ online groups and mainstream media.As a result, 59 schools suspended classes pre-emptively on Friday, most of them in the Mazovian province.Tusk said police checks at schools would continue into next week. He also urged parents and teachers to talk to children about their online experiences and the consequences of becoming involved in online communities that glorify violence.Authorities have not disclosed further details about the reported threat against Tusk and Kosiniak-Kamysz.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.