A stabbing at a Catholic convent in southeastern Poland on Thursday has now left two priests dead and three other people wounded, authorities said. Police have detained a Ukrainian man in the wake of the attack.
Police said they were alerted to the stabbing on the grounds of the Benedictine Sisters Monastery in Jarosław at around 9.30am, local time. Four men and a woman were stabbed.
The victims were taken to a hospital, three of the men suffering serious injuries. Police initially told Polish news agency PAP that one of the men had died.
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That death toll was later updated after a second priest died in hospital after undergoing surgery for multiple stab wounds to the chest, according to Polish news outlet TVN24.
Police, who said that they had been alerted to a stabbing by a Ukrainian citizen, said that a 31-year-old foreign national was detained as a suspect at the scene. They were investigating what exactly happened and what the motive might have been.
Foreign media identified the dead priests as Marek Pieńkowski and Stanisław Zbojnowicz, confirming that they both worked at the monastery.
A Podkarpackie Police force spokesman told local media: “Police officers from Jarosław detained a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen who stabbed four men and a woman.
“All the injured were taken to the hospital – three of the men with serious injuries. Officers are working at the scene to clarify the exact course and circumstances of the incident.”
