Explosion on Polish railway track was caused by sabotage, Tusk says
An explosion which destroyed a railway track on the route between central Warsaw and the eastern city of Lublin was caused by an act of sabotage, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.
On Sunday morning, a train driver reported irregularities in the railway infrastructure in the Zyczyn area of Garwolin County, near the Mika railway station. A preliminary inspection revealed damage to a section of the track, said the Police Headquarters in Radom, in the central Mazowieckie province.
Tusk addressed the incident in a statement on social media on Monday morning.
"Unfortunately, the worst suspicions have been confirmed. On the Warsaw-Lublin route (Mika village), an act of sabotage has occurred. The explosion of an explosive device destroyed the railway track," he wrote on X.
He added that emergency services and the prosecutors were working at the scene.
In a recording sent to PAP on Monday by the Government Information Centre, Tusk said that the explosion near Mika station was most likely intended to blow up a train on the Warsaw-Deblin line.
In a later post on X, he called the incident "an unprecedented act of sabotage targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians."
"This route is also crucially important for delivering aid to Ukraine. We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are," he added.
Another possible act of sabotage was reported by the Lublin police. "Yesterday after 9:00pm, police officers from Pulawy received information about a sudden stop of a passenger train on the Swinoujscie-Rzeszow route, which was carrying 475 passengers," the police wrote on X.
Windows in one of the carriages were broken during the incident, possibly due to damage to the railway, but no one was injured, the police added.
The military was tasked with checking a 120-kilometre section of the railway line running to Hrubieszow near the Ukrainian border.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski told a press conference later on Monday that around 9:30pm on Sunday it was confirmed that approximately 60 meters of the traction power cable along the railway line had been destroyed, and a few hundred metres from the location a metal clamp was found fastened to the rail tracks.
Kierwinski added that all the incidents were investigated by relevant services and a special team consisting of prosecutors and officers of the Police Central Investigation Bureau (CBSP) and Internal Security Agency (ABW).
On Monday afternoon, Tusk announced on X that the government's National Security Committee would convene the next morning, with chiefs of the military and special services as well as a presidential representative in attendance.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday he is in contact with Polish authorities regarding the explosion that damaged railway tracks and that NATO is awaiting the results of the Polish investigation.
(PAP)
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