An explosion at the office of the Polish police chief was caused by a grenade launcher – a weapon that had been a gift from Ukraine, he said.
The explosion which occurred on Wednesday at the police headquarters in Warsaw led to the transport to the hospital of the commander-in-chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk.
Following the incident, Mr Szymczyk told private broadcaster RMF FM that he had received two of the weapons as gifts from Ukraine.
“When I was moving the used grenade launchers, which were gifts from the Ukrainians, there was an explosion,” Szymczyk told RMF FM.
He said he was moving the pitchers into an upright position at that time.
RMF quoted a source from a Polish delegation that visited Ukraine as saying Mr Szymczyk had received two launchers from officials as gifts during visits to the Ukrainian police and state emergency service.
Officials had assured the Polish delegation that the launchers were unloaded, and the delegation drove them back to Warsaw before leaving them in the back room of Mr Szymczyk’s office, the source said.
Sky News was unable to immediately confirm Mr Szymczyk’s version of events.
Mr Szymczyk has been criticized for the incident, with commentators from the security services quoted by Polish media saying military equipment should not have been brought into Poland from outside the European Union or taken to an office .
