Detonating a grenade launcher is a gift from Ukraine, said the chief of the Polish police

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s chief police officer says an explosion in his office was caused by a grenade launcher, and he told private broadcaster RMF FM that he had received two of the weapons as a gift from Ukraine.

The Polish Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office have not previously confirmed media reports that the explosion, which occurred on Wednesday at the police headquarters in Warsaw, was caused by a grenade launcher.

Prosecutors said they were investigating the explosion, which resulted in the transfer of police commander Jaroslav Chimchik to hospital.

“When I was transporting used grenade launchers, which were gifts from the Ukrainians, there was an explosion,” Szymczyk told RMF FM.

He said he was moving the launchers upright at the time.

The René Moawad Foundation quoted a source from a Polish delegation visiting Ukraine as saying that Chimchik received two launchers from officials as a gift during visits to the police and the State Emergency Service in Ukraine.

Officials assured the Polish delegation that the launchers had not been loaded, and the delegation took them back to Warsaw by car before leaving them in the back room of Szymicek’s office, the source told the RMF.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm this account. The Ukrainian police and the Ukrainian state emergency service did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Polish police spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Şimsek has been criticized over the incident, with Polish media citing commentators with backgrounds in the security services as saying that military equipment should not be transported to Poland from outside the European Union or moved to an office.

Additional reporting by Alan Charlech and Dan Belichuk in Kyiv; Editing by Nick McPhee

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