Polish Police Detain Man in Lower Silesia Over Alleged Plot to Attack Tusk and Defense Minister

Hours after Poland's security services convened an emergency meeting on Sunday, Oct. 11, over information about a possible attack on Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, police have a man in custody.

"The man threatening an attack has been detained," Tusk wrote on X, thanking police for their "swift and decisive action." Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński announced the arrest on X about ten minutes earlier.

What officials have disclosed about the suspect

The man was arrested in Lower Silesia, a province bordering Germany and the Czech Republic. Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for Special Services Coordinator Tomasz Siemoniak, said the suspect is a Polish national.

Kierwiński said the man is around 60 and was tracked down through analysis of online content. He said the suspect appears to come from a radical group with links to radical circles. He added that investigators are also examining whether a foreign state was involved.

Polish officials have not said whether the suspect has ties to any state actor. They have not released his name or said what charges he faces.

How the threat surfaced

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka said the plot came to light when an email describing a potential attack reached the State Protection Service (SOP), which handles ministers' security. The SOP forwarded it to police.

Kierwiński said the person who sent the email provided "precise information" about the suspect. Police have not said why the sender came forward.

Onet.pl, a Polish news site, reported further details that officials have not confirmed. Citing its own sourcing, Onet said the plan involved firearms and a "planned mass murder." It said the email's author had contacted radical organizations claiming to seek volunteers for a firearms attack. Onet said he then met a man to discuss weapons, hatred of the government and the planned killings.

The sender has not been publicly identified.

The emergency meeting

Gałecka said Kierwiński and Siemoniak ordered measures after the information arrived. Officials from the police, the SOP and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) met at the agency's counterterrorism center.

"We are treating this matter as deadly serious," Dobrzyński told journalists afterward. "Month by month, year by year, more and more various threats and menacing messages reach the police, SOP, and the services," he said. In this case, he added, there was "a strong likelihood that these threats could actually be carried out."

Government spokesman Adam Szłapka told Polish media that Tusk learned of the threat first thing Sunday morning. Szłapka said officials do occasionally receive threats, but this one was "exceptionally concerning."

A tense week in Poland

The arrest comes as Poland is on high alert after three knife attacks at schools in four days. A 19-year-old injured nine people at a vocational school in Mazovia on Wednesday. On Thursday, a 15-year-old killed a school caretaker and injured two others. On Saturday, a 21-year-old woman wounded three women at an adult education school in Warsaw.

Police have detained 117 people nationwide for carrying knives or dangerous weapons, or for threatening schools or students. They have checked 64,000 schools. Police said Friday that cybercrime investigators found no evidence that a social media challenge is driving the attacks or that they were coordinated.

Tusk, speaking at a government crisis meeting Sunday, called the attacks "spontaneous actions" fueled by a growing "glorification of violence" online. "We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale," he said. On Thursday he had denounced a "cult of violence." Officials have not publicly connected the school attacks to the alleged plot against Tusk.

The Russia question

Tusk warned in September that Russia could intensify hybrid attacks on NATO's eastern flank, including drone or rocket strikes on European countries that back Ukraine. Moscow has denied planning any such attacks. Poland has also suffered cyberattacks attributed to Russia.

No official has linked Sunday's arrest to Moscow. Kierwiński's statement describes the foreign-involvement angle as a line of inquiry only.

This is not Poland's first recent case. In August, police detained a 23-year-old man accused of calling for the assassination of senior Polish politicians. In 2024, Tusk said he had received threats after the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

What comes next

Poland's prosecutors have not yet said what charges the suspect will face or when he will appear before a court. Whether investigators can substantiate the firearms and "mass murder" details attributed to Onet, and whether any foreign link emerges, are the open questions.