Knifeman kills one, wounds nine in Polish mall

WARSAW: A 27-year-old Polish man on Friday knifed a woman to death and injured nine others in a busy shopping centre in the southern city of Stalowa Wola.

The attack, which police said did not appear to be terrorism-related, happened at around 3:00 pm local time before shoppers apprehended the knifeman and handed him over to officers.

“The man acted irrationally, stabbing people in the back. One of the wounded women died. Nine other injured people were hospitalised,” police said in a statement.

Officers said the man, identified only as Konrad K., had no criminal record, was sober, and is being tested for drugs.

“For now, we can say that this attack did not have any terrorist or ideological motives,” regional police chief Krzysztof Pobuta said, quoted by Polish PAP press agency.

Pobuta said he believed the attacker was suffering from depression.

Such attacks are extremely rare in Poland, an EU country of 38 million, which has so far escaped the terrorism-related carnage experienced elsewhere in the bloc in recent years.