2023-08-04 12:49 update: 2023-08-05, 11:20
Photo PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
A Border Guard vehicle collided during a chase with a bus carrying 28 immigrants, including children, in southern Poland on Thursday night.
Dorota Kadziolka, a spokeswoman for the local Border Guard commander, said on Friday that, according to preliminary information, the migrants had crossed the Polish border and were staying in the country illegally.
According to information provided by the Border Guard, the collision occurred during the officers' pursuit of the migrants.
The chase of the Citroen bus with migrants, taken up by four Border Guard vehicles from the border with Slovakia, ended on the popular Zakopianka road connecting Krakow with the Tatra Mountains region, Anna Michalska, a spokeswoman for the Polish Border Guard, told PAP.
"The officers tried to block the vehicle. The driver was so determined that he drove into our car on purpose to keep running away," she said.
After the collision, the driver managed to get out of the vehicle and escape.
"Several warning shots were fired in his direction, to which he did not react," Michalska said. "Efforts are underway to detain him, including with the use of drones and a service dog."
The driver's associate, a Georgian national, has been detained and is being interrogated, she added.
Michalska also told PAP that the bus was not adapted to transport people and that the migrants, including 26 Turkish and two Afghan nationals, were travelling in the cargo compartment. Among them were 12 children, the youngest a year old and the oldest 17 years old.
She added that their destination is still being determined, but they were likely going to Germany.
No one was injured in the incident. (PAP)
mr/jd/ej
