A 37-year-old school caretaker has died after a 15-year-old former pupil attacked three members of staff with a bladed weapon at a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, east-central Poland, on Thursday morning. A teacher and the school’s headteacher were also injured, with the headteacher managing to overpower the teenager before police arrived.
The attack happened at around 9 a.m. at the John Paul II Primary School in Leszczydół-Nowiny, in Wyszków County in the Mazowieckie region. According to Wyszków police information reported by Onet, the teenager entered the school while lessons were under way and attacked a female member of staff in a corridor with a sharp object.
A teacher was also wounded. The headteacher heard the disturbance, left his office and intervened, managing to restrain the attacker despite being injured himself. Police officers arrived within minutes and took the 15-year-old into custody.
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Emergency workers attempted to resuscitate the 37-year-old caretaker, but police later confirmed that she had died from her injuries. The conditions of the teacher and headteacher had not been fully detailed by authorities as of Thursday morning.
Suspect was a former pupil
Police spokeswoman Ilona Puścian said the detained teenager was a former pupil of the primary school and is now attending secondary school. Investigators had not established a motive and police said there was no confirmed information about whether he said anything during the attack that would explain his actions.
Because the suspect is 15, proceedings involving him will initially be handled under rules applying to minors, with the family court expected to play a role in determining the next procedural steps. Authorities had not announced any formal charge or final legal classification of his conduct by late Thursday morning.
Police remained at the school carrying out investigative work after the teenager’s detention.
The incident comes just one day after a separate attack at a vocational school in Ostrołęka, also in the Mazowieckie region, where a 19-year-old student wounded nine people. Authorities subsequently said a homemade explosive device was also discovered in his backpack. There is no indication that the two attacks are connected.
Police also intervened in a separate case in Sierpc after a 17-year-old was reported to have said he intended to “do something bad at school”. Officers detained the teenager and recovered two knives before any reported attack took place.
The incidents have intensified attention on security in Polish schools. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński and Education Minister Barbara Nowacka had already scheduled a joint briefing on school safety for Thursday morning following the earlier incidents.
Authorities have not suggested that the events form part of a coordinated pattern, and the circumstances and motives in each case are being investigated separately.
