President's Office working with security services over prank call

The Polish President's Office is trying to find out how the president was phoned by someone pretending to be Emanuel Macron, the president of France.

A recording of the prank call, reportedly made a week ago by a comedian impersonating Macron, appeared online on Tuesday. The call coincided with a missile strike in the village of Przewodow, eastern Poland, that killed two people.

"After the missile explosion in Przewodow, at a time of communication between heads of state and the government, there was a contact with a person pretending to be French President Emanuel Macron," the President's Office said on Tuesday.

"During the call, President Andrzej Duda realised, due to the unusual way the conversation was conducted by the caller, that an attempt at deceit may have occurred, and ended the call. After this call, the President's Office immediately started cooperation with the appropriate (security – PAP) services to clarify how it had happened."

The missile strike in Przewodow, near the Ukrainian border, occurred on November 15, a day on which Russian forces launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine.

The Polish authorities later said the event had been caused by a stray Ukrainian air-defence missile.

As a result of the incident, on the night of November 15, President Duda spoke on the phone with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as with Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany.

The President's Office told PAP that Duda spoke to the real Macron on Wednesday morning.