Polish Police Cordon Off Warsaw Square

Police cordoned off Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square and the surrounding area of the Polish capital.

This comes following a report that a man had climbed onto a monument in the square and threatened to blow himself up.

Report says the man surrendered to police. Its footage showed him climbing down from the monument, taking off his jacket, and walking away with his hands in the air.

The incident came a day before Poland holds a high-stakes parliamentary election.

A police officer at the scene had told newsmen: “No entrance, there is a bomb,” but a police spokesperson quoted by the state-run PAP news agency did not confirm the reports that the man was threatening to blow himself up.

Footage posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed a man standing on top of the Smolensk monument, which commemorates the victims of a 2010 air disaster that killed 96 people including President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria.

Report says several hundred officers were involved in an operation around the square, and a video journalist saw armed officers arriving nearby.

A guest at the Sofitel hotel, which faces the square, said they had been told to only leave the building by the back exit.

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere