The inhabitants of the Polish town of Przewodow, near the border with Ukraine, continue this Wednesday in shock after the explosion, this Tuesday, of a missile of still unknown origin that caused the death of two people in that town.
“I’m scared. I haven’t slept all night, I’ve been watching TV since this morning and a lot of ideas, thoughts, are going through my head,” Joanna Magus, a primary school teacher in Przewodow, told reporters. Agence de noticias France-Presse (AFP), a small town located about six kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
“I hope it’s a stray missile. If it’s not, we’re defenseless. We don’t know what to do next,” added Joanna Magus, recalling, like the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that the explosion occurred in the early hours of the afternoon. Tuesday fair.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has already said it was “highly likely” that the missile was fired by Ukraine’s defense, at a time when the explosion immediately raised concerns that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could be directly involved in the ongoing conflict. Ukrainian territory.
Duda added that nothing indicates that it was an “intentional attack” and declared that Poland will not invoke NATO Article 4, which provides for consultations between allies as long as the “territorial integrity, political independence or security” of any of the Member States of the Atlantic Alliance.
The Polish head of state told reporters in Warsaw that it was “very likely that the missile was manufactured in [extinta] Soviet Union” and that it is a ‘S300’ model, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
In Przewodow, residents said the shell hit a grain dryer, located near the primary school in the small town, causing “total panic”.
“I heard a big explosion, a terrible explosion. I went to the window and I saw a huge cloud of dark smoke and I saw people running. I thought maybe something had happened to the dryer, that one of the devices had broken down and exploded,” added the teacher, who was at her house.
Joanna Magus’s husband was near the site of the explosion, but was not injured.
“I was terrified. I said that something had exploded and that two people had died. It was a total panic,” added the primary school teacher to AFP.
The two victims of the explosion are men in their 60s, both workers at the cereal drying company.
Ewa Byra, the headmistress of the Przewodow primary school, said one of the dead was married to a school cleaning lady and the other was the father of a former student.
“We didn’t really expect this kind of thing, even if accidents happen, especially when the war is taking place just six kilometers from the village,” he admitted, adding that psychological support will be provided to the students, as well as all other residents who attend. to school.
According to an AFP journalist on the ground, the police cordoned off the site of the explosion.
The authorities are next to the road that gives access to the small town of about 500 inhabitants that, apart from the school and the houses, only has a church and a cemetery.
Questioned by AFP, the parish priest Bogdan Wazny, who said he knew the two fatalities “well”, stressed that the town was empty as soon as the news of the missile explosion spread and that no one attended mass on Tuesday afternoon, something rare in this town located in a region closely linked to Catholic practice.
Source: TSF
