Third Stabbing Attack in Four Days Injures Three at Warsaw College

Three people were injured in a stabbing attack at a further education college in Warsaw on Saturday, October 10.

Police spokesperson Jakub Filipiak stated that one person was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and two other bystanders sustained injuries but did not require hospitalization. The attacker was a 21-year-old student of the college. State news agency PAP reported the victims were two 17-year-old girls and a 24-year-old woman who had come to submit enrollment documents.

Preliminary police findings indicated the attacker and victims did not know one another. This incident marks the third youth stabbing attack in Poland in less than a week, stoking concerns about copycat violence among young people. On Wednesday, October 7, a 19-year-old wounded 10 people, including himself, at a school in Ostroleka, north of the capital.

The following day, Thursday, October 8, a 15-year-old former pupil wearing a helmet-mounted camera killed a caretaker and injured two teachers at a primary school in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of Warsaw. In response to the earlier attacks and rumors of potential further incidents, thousands of police visited schools nationwide on Friday, October 9, to reassure pupils.

Police said on Saturday they had inspected some 50,000 facilities since Friday and detained 76 people across Poland. Authorities previously stated most of those detained were teenagers who had made threats online. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński emphasized, "When it comes to the safety of Polish children and peace in our schools, there is no room for compromise."

Fifty-nine schools preemptively suspended classes on Friday, mostly in the Mazovian district, which includes Warsaw. School directors announced stepped-up security measures, including extra staff at entrances and voluntary backpack checks. Those detained on Friday included a 14-year-old boy with a knife with a concealed blade and 11 firecrackers, and a 16-year-old with a butterfly knife in his backpack.

Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that Russia sought to exploit the school attacks to spread disinformation and sow panic, noting that Moscow sees a crisis and immediately exploits it. He cited a major disinformation campaign on Friday evening intended to spread panic.