Polish police chief in hospital after gift from Ukrainian officials explodes

Poland's top police chief has been hurt after a gift given by Ukrainian officials exploded at his headquarters.

Jarosław Szymczyk suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after opening the present at his Warsaw offices.

It is not clear what the object was but local reports suggested it was a grenade launcher. The officer was given the gift on a recent visit to Ukraine.

Poland has asked for an explanation, but Kyiv has not yet made a public statement on the incident.

The explosion happened in a room next to the Commander-in-Chief's office at 07:50 (06:50 GMT) on Wednesday.

A civilian employee at the HQ was also hurt but did not need hospital treatment, Poland's interior ministry said.

The present was a gift from one of the heads of Ukraine's police and state emergency services who Mr Szymczyk had visited a few days earlier.

The incident comes a month after a missile strike during an attack by Russia on Ukraine killed two people in Poland close to the Ukrainian border.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the missile was most likely Ukrainian air defence, but that the blame for the deaths lay with Russia due to its attack on Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the time that the deaths appeared to be an "unfortunate accident".

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