Polish authorities said Tuesday they have arrested a 19-year-old university student on suspicion of plotting an attack on a Christmas market and trying to liaise with the self-styled “Islamic State” terrorist group.
Jacek Dobrzynski, a spokesman for Polish special services, said the suspect wanted to carry out an attack using explosives that could have caused mass casualties.
What investigators said about the case
“The man was very attracted to Islam, he wanted to establish contacts with the Islamic State and was preparing an attack during a Christmas market in a city in Poland,” Dobrzynski said.
He declined to specify which city the alleged attack was targeted at so as to “avoid panic.”
Dobrzynski said that the suspect, A Catholic university student in the city of Lublin, southeast of the capital Warsaw, was detained in November trying to obtain materials for the attack.
He said he was arrested from his apartment. The investigators seized data storage devices and items related to Islam.
The suspect was accused of “taking preparatory actions to carry out a terrorist attack that could result in the death or serious injury of many people” and a court ordered that he be detained for three months.
call for vigilance
Dobrzynski noted the arrest in June of three young men accused of gathering explosive materials and planning terrorist actions, including allegedly planning to attack a school in the northern Polish city of Olsztyn.
“You’re familiar with this issue of Olsztyn, now we have another example of preparations for an attack before Christmas,” Dobrzynski said, also referencing the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney.
“We are shocked by the incident in Sydney, we are shocked by the attacks in other European countries in previous years before Christmas. Let’s remain vigilant.”
German authorities announced five arrests on Saturday in connection with an alleged plot to attack a Christmas market in Bavaria.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery