Warsaw: Man climbs monument and threatens to ‘blow himself up’ | World News

A man climbed the Smolensk monument in Warsaw, Poland, and threatened to ‘blow himself up’, hotel staff and guests nearby reported.

The man appeared this morning and was seen wearing a backpack and holding an unidentified object in his hand.

The adjacent area, Saxon Gardens, is still closed off with buses diverted and police operations ongoing, according to Assistant Commissioner Małgorzata Wersocka, from Warsaw Police.

A spokesperson for the police warned people not to approach the area under any circumstances.

Eyewitnesses report that anti-terrorists and a police negotiator were on site and as a result of the actions of the police negotiator, they managed to bring the man down and he has since been detained.

‘No entrance, there is a bomb,’ a police officer on the scene told Reuters at the time of the incident.

A photo of the man was initially posted by the BBC’s Eastern Europe Correspondent Sarah Rainsford who is located near the Sofitel Warsaw Victoria hotel.

She reported the police banned hotel guests leaving the building and said they were warned ‘this man could potentially be very dangerous’.

The monument was unveiled on April 10 2018 eight years after the Smolensk air disaster which killed 96 people including then president Lech Kaczyński, and his wife Maria.

After years of deliberation, Pilsudski Square was chosen as the location from among other potential candidates, with the Presidential Palace among others at one point being suggested.

The black granite monument, built to look like the gangway stairs of a plane, has led to suggestions that it looks like a ‘stairway to heaven’.