WARSAW: Poland launched a major police operation on Monday to strengthen security at schools following three recent stabbing attacks, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged to address what he described as a growing trend of youth violence.
Authorities have dismissed rumours linking the incidents to an online challenge or an organised group. However, Tusk said at a crisis meeting on Sunday that the glorification of violence in some parts of the internet was negatively affecting young people.
“We have observed a rise in the fascination with violence, both in Poland and worldwide… we are witnessing a grim trend of violence,” he said.
Tusk also identified content promoting Nazi ideology, a “cult of strength” and violent video games as factors contributing to the trend.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski announced late on Sunday that more than 20,000 police officers would be deployed to schools on Monday.
“A clear message is required: there will be no tolerance for any attacks on Polish children, nor for the descent of public life into anarchy,” he told state news channel TVP Info.
Police said on Monday that officers had inspected 80,000 educational institutions and detained 135 people since Friday.
In one incident, authorities reported that a boy had created a model of his school in the online game Roblox and simulated attacks on students. Police found him in possession of a firearm, ammunition and knives.
The latest attack occurred on Saturday, when three people were injured at a further education college in Warsaw. It marked the third stabbing incident at an educational institution in Poland within four days.
On Thursday, 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.
A day earlier, a 19-year-old injured 10 people, including himself, at a school in Ostroleka, north of the capital.