Polish police chief Jaroslaw Simczyk was hospitalized Wednesday with minor injuries after receiving a gift that exploded after visiting Ukraine earlier this week, a Polish interior ministry statement said Thursday.
“At 7:50 am yesterday, an explosion occurred in a room adjacent to the police chief’s office,” the statement said.
“During the working visit of the Chief of the Ukrainian Police on December 11-12 this year, I met with the head of the Ukrainian Police Emergency Service and received several gifts, one of which exploded.”
The statement claimed the gift came from one of the heads of the Ukrainian service.CNN has reached out to Kyiv’s local and national police for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
The police chief was hospitalized for follow-up, and an employee at the police headquarters suffered minor injuries, but did not need to be hospitalized.
The statement added that Poland had asked Ukraine to clarify what had happened, and that a lawsuit would be launched “immediately” at the public prosecutor’s office and related services.
The incident came after a number of suspicious mails were sent to Ukrainian embassies in Europe, forcing Ukraine to tighten security at all diplomatic offices abroad.
The Kyiv embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy and Austria, as well as the consulates general in Naples and Krakow, have also received the suspicious parcel, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Olev Nikolenko said on December 2. Facebook post.
