Estimated reading time: 1 minute
The head of the Polish police looks set to keep his job despite triggering a rocket-propelled grenade by accident in his office.
Last Wednesday, Jarosław Szymczyk was taken to hospital when a grenade launcher, given to him as a gift when on a working visit to Ukraine earlier this month, exploded in his office, causing some damage to the building and slightly wounding one other person.
Szymczyk told the national daily Rzeczpospolita on Thursday that he had thought the launcher was empty and could cause no harm.
“I grabbed the launcher tube at the lower section, I leaned down a bit and lifted it to an upright position,” Szymczyk explained. “When I put it down, there was a huge explosion.”
The media speculated that the police chief may lose his job after the incident, but the interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, said on Monday Szymczyk was there to stay.
“At the same time, I would like to end media speculation and rule out the dismissal of the Commander in Chief,” Kamiński wrote on Twitter.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the incident was being scrutinised, adding that, “very thorough analyses are being conducted which are intended to draw conclusions quickly,” about what happened and how so that “the interior minister and I can assess it and take the appropriate decisions.”