Polish authorities have announced that they have foiled a planned ISIS-inspired terror attack on a Christmas market and have arrested a young man alleged to have become radicalised by Islamism.
Amid heightened concern across the continent over repeats of past terror attacks on Christmas markets, Polish government spokesman Jacek Dobrzyński disclosed Tuesday that Warsaw’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) arrested “Mateusz W.”, a first-year law student at the Catholic University of Lublin.
The student, who is said to have been born to a Catholic Polish family, is alleged to have begun plotting an attack on a Christmas market with “explosive materials”.
“Earlier, the man had been acquiring knowledge about methods of independently producing materials that were to be used to carry out a terrorist act. He also planned to join a terrorist organization to obtain assistance in implementing the intended actions. The purpose of the crime was to intimidate many people, as well as to support the Islamic State,” Dobrzyński said.
During a raid of the suspect’s residence, intelligence officials “seized data storage devices and items related to Islam”, he added.
The National Public Prosecutor’s Office said, per Euronews, that searches of Mateusz W’s electronic devices showed him “conducting conversations and establishing contacts, including with representatives of the Islamic State, as well as collecting information about explosives and the possibilities of obtaining them.”
At a press conference, Dobrzyński refused to name the specific location of the planned attack, saying that the government did not want to “create a panic”.
“A similar threat could occur in any Polish city, in any European city. Citizen vigilance is important, but the actions of the Internal Security Agency officers, who once again prevented a tragedy, are also incredibly important. Their actions revealed preparations before anything even happened,” he said.
Indeed, the disclosure from Warsaw comes just days after German police revealed over the weekend that they too have foiled an Islamist plot against a Christmas market in Bavaria. Five men were arrested, including three Moroccans, a Syrian, and an Egyptian. The plot, which is alleged to have been organised in a mosque near the target, was to follow similar attacks of the past in Germany, namely, using a vehicle to ram into and kill pedestrians at a Christmas market.
Last year, a Saudi Arabian asylum seeker used a car to ram into revellers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, leaving six dead and over three hundred injured. This was not the first instance of such an attack in Germany, with 12 people killed in 2016 by a Tunisian Islamist failed asylum seeker, who drove a lorry into a Christmas market in Berlin.
The danger posed by radical Islamists has considerably driven up the cost of protecting Christmas markets, forcing multiple municipalities across Germany to cancel festivities this year.
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