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Polish authorities are investigating a series of sabotage attacks that brought dozens of trains to a standstill over the weekend as concerns mounted over Russian attempts to disrupt the country.
According to Polish railway authorities, trains were affected by several incidents involving unauthorized use of an emergency stop signal between Friday night and Sunday.
Saboteurs exploited a vulnerability in Poland’s “Radio Stop” command system, which automatically brings trains to a stop when three beeps are sent over the railway’s radio network.
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Poland has already tightened security on its railways after foiling a plan by Russian intelligence to monitor the railway networks and derail a train carrying weapons bound for Ukraine. Around 80 percent of Western arms shipments to Kiev pass through Poland, making it the main transit hub for logistical support.
The first false signaling occurred on Friday at 9:23 p.m. on two sections of track near the north-western Polish city of Szczecin, when the signal was transmitted by “cellular phone from an unknown perpetrator,” according to the Polish railway infrastructure manager said PKP Polskie line Kolejowe. More than 20 trains were affected, and freight traffic was suspended as a precaution.
According to the Polish press agency PAP, a second incident occurred near the port of Gdynia around 6 p.m. on Saturday. Later that evening, a freight train was stopped by the distress signal. Trains near Bialystok, near Poland’s border with Belarus, were affected on Sunday morning.
Polish officials said the disturbances were being investigated by police and intelligence agencies. “We know that there have been attempts to destabilize the Polish state for several months,” Stanislaw Zaryn, a senior security official, told PAP. “Such attempts were made jointly by the Russian Federation and Belarus.”
It came after a freight train collision and derailment last week, which officials say has been investigated but has so far not been linked to any disruption efforts. Two people were arrested on Monday in connection with the incidents.
Poland’s internal intelligence agency is also investigating a mysterious outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Polish city of Rzeszow, a major arms logistics hub and a US military base. The outbreak of lung infection, which develops from breathing infected water droplets, has killed 11 people and infected more than 100. Water supplies are being tested and Zaryn said authorities are looking into whether there may have been tampering with the supplies.
Critics of Poland’s populist government accused it of intensifying a fear campaign ahead of the crucial autumn elections.
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