WARSAW: A Ukrainian man was arrested on Thursday for killing a priest and wounding four others with a knife at a Catholic abbey in southeastern Poland, an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky branded ‘evil’ and ‘horrific’.
Police said the31-year-old went on a stabbing spree at the 17th-century abbey in Jaroslaw, 30 kilometres from the border with Ukraine. Poland, a close ally of neighbouring Ukraine, has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, with some social tensions erupting in recent months.
Prosecutors said the man entered Poland from Germany and was headed for the Ukraine border, but instead went to the abbey, where he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and attacked clergyand worshippers. Police said he attacked four men and a woman.
Polish media identified the man who died as a priest. Police confirmed that one person had died, but did not confirm their identity.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the ‘murderer’ will be ‘punished with the full severity of Polish law’.
Zelensky said: ‘The perpetrator of this evil must bear full responsibility in accordance with the law’ and called the attack a ‘horrific crime’.
‘We are shaken by this evil,’ the Ukrainian president said.
The local Gazeta Jaroslawska newspaper published images of fire engines and police outside the monastery, with its entrance cordoned off.-AFP