Poland charges 18-year-old with planning Islamist bomb attack - security agency

WARSAW (Reuters) - An 18-year-old Polish man has been arrested and charged with plotting with Islamist militants to bomb a government building, the internal security agency said on Friday.

The young man was arrested in southern Poland in June and had collected information and products to make an explosive belt, Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) said.

It did not name the man and there was no immediate statement from any lawyer representing him.

"The detained citizen of the Republic of Poland was charged with participation in an organised criminal group aimed at committing a terrorist crime," the ABW's statement read.

"The man was also charged with planning, using explosives, to carry out an event threatening the life or health of many people or property of great size."

It said he had converted to Islam at the end of 2022 and had modelled himself on militants such as Osama Bin Laden.

He had made his plans with a group that said it represented Islamic State, the agency added, without giving further details on the members of the group or identifying the target of the planned attack.

He will be held in pre-trial detention for three months, it added.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Andrew Heavens)