A distressed man barricaded himself in his Warsaw apartment on Wednesday, throwing flaming objects from the seventh-floor balcony and even firing shots at police negotiators, according to Polish media. While authorities did not announce the suspect’s nationality, local outlets identified him as a Ukrainian citizen.
Police in the Polish capital initially received reports of an “aggressive man” armed with a knife and what appeared to be a gun, which he aimed at bystanders on Tuesday afternoon, as reported by the Warsaw-based weekly Do Rzeczy.
By the time police, along with the counter-terrorism unit, ambulance, and fire department arrived, the suspect had barricaded himself inside. Law enforcement cordoned off access to the building and evacuated residents from nearby apartments after the man was seen lighting objects on fire and throwing them from the balcony, according to Polish channel TVP3.
The standoff between the barricaded suspect and law enforcement lasted more than five hours, during which the man shouted in a “foreign language” and attempted to set an adjacent apartment on fire, according to Do Rzeczy.
When police negotiators tried to communicate with him from a nearby balcony, he fired shots in their direction, escalating the situation, the newspaper reported. His weapon reportedly turned out to be an airgun rather than a firearm.
In a video circulating on social media, the counter-terror unit can be seen throwing a flashbang grenade into the apartment. Smoke was seen rising from one of the balconies.
“Police negotiators were present at the scene. After 10 PM, however, the decision was made to enter the apartment by force. The man was overpowered by the capital’s anti-terrorist unit. No one was injured in the incident. Drugs were secured in the apartment,” TVP3 quoted an official from the Bielany and Zoliborz District Police Station.
The table in the suspect’s room was set with alcohol and drugs – a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and mephedrone – according to a police officer familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Wirtualna Polska (WP) news website. The man had alcohol in his system but tested negative for drugs, they said.
The suspect is allegedly a 19-year-old Ukrainian man who has been renting an apartment in the building for about a year and had caused problems in the past, his neighbors told WP. According to one neighbor, the young man claimed to be a drug dealer and was considering suicide because he “was in debt to Chechens.”
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