A wave of violent knife attacks targeting Polish educational institutions this week has left one community worker dead and multiple others injured, including minors, triggering a sweeping national security operation that has resulted in nearly 120 arrests and an urgent government crackdown on violent online extremism. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk addressed the unfolding crisis Sunday during an emergency crisis meeting with top national security officials, linking the three back-to-back attacks to the growing normalization and glorification of graphic violence across digital platforms. “These are very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity,” Tusk told attendees of the closed-door meeting. He emphasized that authorities have not uncovered evidence of a large-scale organized group coordinating the attacks, but warned that both Poland and the broader global community have seen a disturbing rise in fascination with extreme violence in recent years. Tusk specifically characterized the incidents as acts of nihilistic violence tied to far-right extremist circles, noting that several of the people detained in the aftermath of the attacks have documented ties to ultranationalist movements. He added that law enforcement has recorded a sharp uptick in online searches for Nazi propaganda and content centered on infamous mass killers, who have increasingly been lionized as idols by radicalized online communities. The first attack unfolded Wednesday, when a 19-year-old former student stormed a vocational school in Poland’s central Mazovian province, stabbing and injuring nine people before being taken into custody. The following day, a 15-year-old suspect entered a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, a small town located just north of the Polish capital Warsaw, and fatally stabbed 37-year-old school caretaker, the sole fatality recorded in this week’s attacks. A third violent incident unfolded Saturday in Warsaw itself, when a woman was arrested after she attacked a 17-year-old female student at an educational facility in the city, wounding three people in the process. In addition to these three confirmed attacks, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński confirmed that authorities detained a 17-year-old in Sierpc, a town northwest of Warsaw, after the teen allegedly shared plans to carry out a harmful, dangerous attack on school grounds. In response to the rapid string of violence, thousands of police officers were deployed to tens of thousands of schools across Poland earlier this week, a visible security presence intended to reassure rattled students and parents after unsubstantiated social media rumors spread of a coordinated “Bloody Friday” of attacks linked to a viral online challenge. As authorities work to contain the threat of further violence, a separate security development emerged over the weekend: a spokesperson for Polish special services confirmed that the agency held an emergency Sunday meeting after receiving credible intelligence of a potential deadly attack targeting both Prime Minister Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. Officials confirmed they are treating the reported threat as “deadly serious” and have deployed additional security resources to protect the two senior government leaders. As of Sunday, the national security sweep has resulted in 117 arrests across the country, with detentions issued for charges ranging from illegal possession of knives and other weapons to making explicit threats to carry out attacks against schools or fellow students.