Priest killed and four injured in knife attack at Polish abbey
A Polish priest died and four other people were injured after a Ukrainian man armed with a kitchen knife attacked clergy and worshippers at a Benedictine abbey in Jarosław, prosecutors said.
A Polish priest has died and four other people were injured after a man armed with a knife attacked clergy and worshippers at a Benedictine abbey in southern Poland on Thursday, a prosecutor said.
The attacker, a 31-year-old Ukrainian national who had entered Poland from Germany earlier that day, used a kitchen knife taken from the abbey’s premises, according to Bożena Harasz-Wołoszyn of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Przemyśl. He attacked four men and one woman, including one priest who was in a confessional.
Three of the victims are clergy and two are laypeople, the prosecutor said. One person has died and two others are in a critical, life-threatening condition.
The attack took place at the 17th-century Benedictine abbey in Jarosław, about 30km from the Ukrainian border, according to Al Jazeera. Prosecutors said the attacker had been headed for a nearby border crossing back into Ukraine but went to the abbey instead.
Sister Barbara Dendor told state broadcaster TVP Info: “When I arrived, there was total panic.” The mayor of Jarosław, Marcin Nazarewicz, declared a period of mourning until the end of the week. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the “horrific crime”.
The motive is not immediately clear, prosecutors said.
Sources
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