The suspect was detained after a five-hour standoff with Warsaw police
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.
Antyterroryści weszli do mieszkania mężczyzny, który się zabarykadował na Bielanach @wirtualnapolska pic.twitter.com/MNY16rdgu0
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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.
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