Donald Tusk says man accused of plotting to kill him detained

The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Sunday that a man accused of plotting to assassinate him and his defence minister had been detained.

“The man threatening an attack has been detained,” Tusk wrote on X, praising the police for their “swift and decisive action”.

The arrest was also confirmed by the country’s interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński.

The interior ministry had earlier said that Tusk and the defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz may have been targeted.

It ordered authorities to take action “in connection with the information received by the police concerning a possible assassination attempt on the prime minister... as well as the deputy prime minister”, who is also defence minister, spokesperson Karolina Gałecka wrote on X.

Members of the police, state protection service (SOP) and internal security agency were present at Sunday’s meeting.

“We are treating this matter as deadly serious,” a spokesperson for the minister-coordinator of special services, Jacek Dobrzyński, told journalists afterwards.

“Month by month, year by year, more and more various threats and menacing messages reach the police, SOP, and the services concerning Poland and Poles,” he said. In this case we are talking about a strong likelihood that these threats could actually be carried out.”

Poland, a Nato and EU member, has been on high alert after a series of stabbings in the last week, which Tusk on Thursday denounced as a “cult of violence”.