Three injured in third school attack in Poland in less than a week

Three people have been injured in a stabbing attack at a further education college in Warsaw, in the third attack on a school in Poland in less than a week.

The series of incidents has stoked concerns in Poland about copycat violence among young people, and ushered police to check tens of thousands of schools and detain dozens of people across the country earlier on Saturday.

In the latest attack, a 21-year-old woman used a “dangerous object” on Saturday at about 12:30pm local time (10:30 GMT) to attack a 17-year-old woman, said Jakub Filipiak, a spokesman for Warsaw police.

The suspect also ended up hurting two other people, aged 17 and 24 respectively, he said.

“One person was injured and transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Two other bystanders also sustained injuries but did not require hospitalisation,” Filipiak added.

The police did not identify the educational institution, but said it was open on a Saturday because it is a higher education establishment. The attacker did not know any of the victims, the police said.

National Wyborcza newspaper identified the institution as TEB Edukacja, a school that gives post-secondary education. The suspect studied at this school, according to national media reports.

Seventy-six detained

The attack came after police on Saturday said they detained 76 people across Poland and checked nearly 50,000 schools nationwide as part of efforts to prevent further violence following two school attacks earlier in the week.

On Friday, schools across Poland stepped up security, with some suspending classes, many parents keeping children at home and police patrols deployed to educational institutions after two attacks at schools earlier in the week left one person dead and several others wounded, including children.

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student at a vocational school in the Mazovian province in central Poland attacked fellow students, teachers and passersby with a sharp object, injuring nine people before fleeing and being arrested nearby.

The following day, a 15-year-old killed a school custodian and wounded two others in a knife attack at his former school in the same province.

The assaults, both carried out by Polish nationals, shocked a country where school violence by minors is a new phenomenon.

By Thursday night, rumours that the attacks were coordinated and that there would be more on the culmination day dubbed “bloody Friday” were being shared in parents’ online groups and by mainstream media.

Fifty-nine schools pre-emptively suspended classes on Friday across Poland, the majority in the Mazovian district, where the capital Warsaw is located. School directors sent messages announcing stepped-up security measures including extra school staff placed at entrances and voluntary backpack checks.

“There will be no compromise here. The safety of the youth is the most important thing,” Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said.

The government earlier said that it had so far found no evidence that an internet challenge promoting school attacks was ongoing. There is also no official confirmation that any of the attacks are linked.