Poland Stabbings Driven by Online Glorification of Violence, Tusk Says
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Three violent attacks at Polish schools this week were driven by the "glorification of violence" online, said Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The attacks have left one woman dead and others injured, including children.
"These are very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity," Tusk stated during a crisis meeting with security services on Sunday.
Police have arrested 117 people across the country for possession of knives or other weapons, or for threatening to attack schools or fellow students, after searching tens of thousands of schools.
A woman was arrested on Saturday after injuring three people while attacking a 17-year-old girl at an educational institution in the capital, Warsaw.
This incident followed two other stabbing attacks earlier in the week, one resulting in the killing of a female caretaker.
"We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale," Tusk said, adding that police had noticed a rise in online searches of Nazi content as well as "mass killers who have become idols online".
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student attacked and injured nine people at a vocational school in the central Polish province of Mazovian.
The following day, a 37-year-old caretaker was killed after a 15-year-old entered a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, north of Warsaw.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński also reported the detention of a 17-year-old in Sierpc, northwest of Warsaw, for allegedly stating "on school grounds that he planned to do something... dangerous - that he intended to harm someone".
Thousands of Polish police officers visited schools nationwide to try to reassure pupils after the stabbings sparked rumors of a "Bloody Friday" of more attacks stemming from an alleged online challenge.
Meanwhile, Polish security services convened a special meeting on Sunday after receiving information about a potential attack on Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. A spokesperson said officials were treating the threat as "deadly serious".