ABW warned of accelerating youth radicalisation months before school knife attacks

Colonel Rafał Syrysko, the director of Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW), cautioned half a year ago that a growing number of Polish adolescents were undergoing rapid radicalisation through exposure to graphic violence, terrorist propaganda and the glorification of mass killers online. He described the influence as a gradual toxin that can begin as a prank or joke and evolve into a willingness to commit violence. ABW focuses on analysing and, where lawful, removing extremist material, yet acknowledges the difficulty of policing encrypted messaging apps and obscure internet spaces frequented by youths.

Shortly after his warning, a 15-year-old attacked a school caretaker in Leszczydole-Nowiny, resulting in the caretaker’s death, while another knife assault at a vocational school in Ostrołęka injured eight people. In response, police conducted a countrywide school security operation, detaining ten individuals, most of whom are suspected of issuing criminal threats.