Warsaw, Sept 24. (dpa/GNA) – One man was killed and four others seriously injured, in a knife attack at a Benedictine convent in Poland, local police said on Thursday.
Four men, three of whom were clergymen, and a woman were stabbed. They were taken to hospital and one person died from their injuries there.
Two others are in critical condition, a spokesman said. The man who was killed was reportedly a priest, according to broadcaster TVN24.
The 31-year-old suspect is a Ukrainian national who entered Poland from Germany overnight, a public prosecutor’s office spokesman said.
The police said the suspect initially made his way to the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing at Korczowa, but did not enter Ukraine. It is unclear how he gained access to the cloister grounds in the town of Jarosław, which is situated about 35 kilometres from the border crossing.
The suspect broke into the convent in the morning, and initially went to the kitchen, where he stole a knife that he later used as a murder weapon, the public prosecutor’s spokesman said.
The suspect then attacked people in the church, including a priest in the confessional. No further details regarding the course of events or a possible motive are available as yet.
An eyewitness told TVN24 that the suspect suddenly attacked several priests before Mass. He then ran into a café on the convent grounds and attacked more people there.
The Benedictine cloister in Jarosław has for years been providing aid to war refugees, arriving from Ukraine, as Russia continues its attacks.
“I feel this is an attack on the good work being done here,” the head of the cloister told TVN24.
GNA