Parcel with explosives sent to Senate speaker

The Senate Office received on Friday afternoon a parcel addressed to Senate Speaker Tomasz Grodzki with a letter containing death threats and an unknown substance, the Office has said.

"During routine correspondence checking procedure, it turned out that the parcel contained a letter with death threats towards the Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, and an unidentified substance," a Saturday statement from the Senate Office read.

The Senate Guards handed over the suspicious parcel to the State Security Service, which confirmed it contained explosives, according to the statement.

The incident was reported to the police, the statement added.

Commenting on the matter, Grodzki, hailing from the main opposition party Civic Platform, wrote on Twitter on Saturday: "This is what the industry of contempt and instigation against political opponents is leading to."

Grodzki, who heads the upper house where the ruling party has no majority, has often been criticised by ruling party politicians, who accused him of politicising the house and undue prolongation of proceedings when it came to bills important for the government.

Grodzki said he hoped the relevant services would be able to quickly catch the perpetrator.