Polish prosecutors are investigating a “violent release of energy” at the national police headquarters amid media reports that the chief of police fired a grenade launcher in his office.
Poland’s interior ministry said on Thursday that Jarosław Szymczyk, the police commander in chief, was injured and taken to hospital when a present he received during a visit to Ukraine exploded at police headquarters in Warsaw.
Polish media reported that the present was a grenade launcher and that Szymczyk himself had accidentally fired it in his office, in what would be a serious breach of safety regulations.
In a statement, published on Thursday, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said it was investigating “an act consisting of unintentionally causing a violent release of energy that threatened the life or health of many people or property”.
The statement said three people, including Szymczyk, were considered victims, without giving details of possible injuries.
Polish media reported that the blast had damaged a ceiling in the building.
A police spokesperson and a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office both declined to comment further on the issue.
There was no reply from Ukraine’s SBU security service to a Reuters request for comment after they were contacted on Thursday.