A 38-year-old woman with strong interests in the Islamic State was arrested Monday and charged on suspicion of carrying out a bombing on a public street in Warsaw, Poland. The incident took place on the night of November 10-11, as reported by local media, after which a manhunt ensued for the perpetrator.
Surveillance captured a woman setting fire to a device she had placed in the middle of a Warsaw public street. Police later found that the contraption was filled with aerosol gas cans, nails, and shards of broken glass. One person was reportedly injured in the leg by shrapnel.
After the woman was identified and arrested, Commander Marta Gierlicka from Warsaw Police Headquarters stated: “Operational activities of police officers from the Warsaw district police headquarters led to the identification of the data of the person who set fire to an explosive device on one of the streets in the center of Warsaw on November 10-11, 2023, around 2 AM."
“Thanks to the downtown monitoring provided for the case, the police focused their activity on a woman who is captured by a camera at the place where the charge was planted, and then, moving through the streets of the capital, she reached the central railway station, from where she took a train towards Wrocław and then went to her place of residence in the municipality of Strzelin.”
“After her arrest in Wrocław, during a search of her place of residence, a second, similar cargo was seized, as well as items and images referring to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Items used for occult practices were also seized,” said prosecutor Marcin Przestrzeski. Additionally it was reported that they found other items that could be used to construct more explosives. She admitted to being the owner of all items found.
Przestrzeski also stated that the woman has been charged with two offenses. The first will be “bringing danger to the life and health of many people by causing an explosion of flammable materials” while the second is related to preparing to cause immediate danger to residential areas.
The woman has been placed in pre-trial detention for three months and faces up to 10 years in prison.
