Woman killed, security officers seriously injured in an ax attack at the Polish university

May 8th (Upi) – A female employee at the Warsaw University in Poland was killed and a second worker was seriously injured by an ax-swinging intruder. The police said they had arrested a 22-year-old man who is Polish.

The attack on the university's campus in the capital occurred on Wednesday evening at around 6.40 p.m. local time, the Warsaw police department shared in one post on X.

“One man entered the University of Warsaw's campus and attacked the people there with an ax. He is a 22-year-old Polish citizen. One person died, the other was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

“Prosecutors and police are working at the scene,” said the police.

A local public prosecutor announced the BBC that the suspect was a law student in his third year at the university, who did not come from Warsaw.

In a statement, the university said that the victim, a member of the employee, was attacked in the main building of the campus and that a security officer from the university was seriously injured when he tried to intervene.

The university official, who was “impressed by a terrible tragedy”, canceled a day of grief on Thursday, canceled all classes on Thursday, and ordered that security would be reinforced.

“Our colleague, a UW employee, was brutally murdered. The perpetrator was caught,” said Alojzy Nowak, the rector of the university.

“We express our great grief and compassion towards the family and the relatives. A member of the university security was also seriously injured,” he said.

According to local reports, the woman was a 53-year-old porter at the university who died at the scene, and the man who was injured was 39 years old.

Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who took part in an event in an adjacent hearing theater, said that one of his officers had rushed to help the two victims and committed with the attacker.

The Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, said it was a “macabre attack” that shocked him.

“This brutal attack must be answered with serious punishment,” he wrote on social media.

The university has also canceled its annual two-day Juwenalia music festival, which was started on Friday.

The university, the largest university institution in Poland, employs more than 8,000 people and, according to its website, has more than 3,600 international students and doctoral students, more than 3,600 international students and doctoral candidates.