Polish police chief hurt as gift from Ukraine ‘accidentally’ explodes

Poland’s chief of police was injured when a grenade launcher presented to him during a visit to Ukraine reportedly exploded at the police headquarters in Warsaw.

Jaroslaw Szymczyk suffered cuts and damage to his hearing and was treated in hospital, while a civilian employee received minor wounds, in an explosion that caused extensive damage to a room below his office, Poland’s interior ministry said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday but was only made public late yesterday.

“One of the gifts the commander received during his working visit to Ukraine on December 11-12, during which he met the leadership of the Ukrainian police and security services, exploded,” a spokesman for Poland’s interior ministry told broadcaster TVN24.

Police Commander in Chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk, Inspector General of Polish Police. Photo / Getty Images

The interior ministry spokesman said the gift came from one of the heads of Ukraine’s security services, but did not specify what it was.

The Onet news portal cited unofficial police sources as saying that it was a grenade launcher, and claimed that Commander Szymczyk had accidentally fired the weapon as he was showing it to colleagues, not realising it was loaded.

The incident raised questions over how a weapon, or an explosive device, had been presented to the head of the police without being made safe, and just why it was in an office and not secured in a safe location.

”If the commander, or anyone else, brought the weapon into the office, he should be punished or resign,” the police source told Onet.

The prosecutor’s office in Warsaw said it had launched a formal investigation into what it called an “unintentional blast” that posed a threat to health and life.

The office added that it would be asking the Ukrainian authorities to “submit the appropriate explanations”.