Woman, 21, stabs three women at Warsaw adult school; one 17-year-old hospitalised

Attack at a Praga adult school

On Saturday 10 October, a 21-year-old woman attacked people inside the building of an adult education school complex at ul. Mińska 25 in Warsaw's Praga district. Police spokesman kom. Jacek Wiśniewski said she stabbed a 17-year-old in the building, in front of the secretariat, and that two other women, aged 17 and 24, were also hurt. The 17-year-old suffered cuts to her forearm and was taken to hospital, where police said her life is not in danger. Accounts differ on the other two women: several outlets say they suffered minor injuries, while Wiśniewski, speaking to wPolsce24, said the two women in the secretariat suffered no cut wounds. According to Warszawa Nasze Miasto, the report reached the emergency services at 12:30, and officers arrived four minutes later.

Jakub Filipiak of the Warsaw police confirmed the response to Polsat News in these words:

We confirm that we received a report, and a police intervention is under way.

Disarming and detention

A school employee took the knife from the attacker and restrained her until police arrived. Police detained the 21-year-old, who is a student at the school, while the other women had come to submit application papers. Preliminary police findings show the attacker and the women did not know each other and that the attack was not planned. Wiśniewski told wPolsce24 that investigators had no information indicating the women knew each other before the incident.

Wiśniewski described the detained woman's conduct in the following words:

She did not say why she did it, did not comment, and did not want to cooperate.

Police are securing traces at the scene and questioning the detained woman as well as the less seriously injured women at the Praga police station. Wiśniewski said the attacker and the victims are all Polish. Investigators are still trying to establish what led the 21-year-old to use a knife.

Link to other knife attacks

Police said nothing so far indicates a link between the attack and intimidation or threats circulating across the country in the previous 48 hours. The Warsaw attack came after two other knife attacks in the Mazovia region. On 7 October in Ostrołęka, a 19-year-old attacked students and teachers with a knife and then wounded two random people in a park, leaving nine injured in total, according to Nowiny. The man tried to harm himself after the attack and has been charged. On 8 October at a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny in Wyszków county, a 15-year-old former pupil attacked a caretaker, a teacher and the headteacher. The 37-year-old caretaker died, while the teacher and headteacher were injured. Super Express reported that threats and videos about a so-called bloody Friday circulated online on 9 October, and that police checked reports and detained people suspected of making threats. Super Express also wrote that there is no official confirmation of any link between the Saturday attack and the earlier incidents.