POLISH AUTHORITIES have arrested a man who they believe was planning to detonate a massive car bomb outside the country’s parliament building while the government and lawmakers were inside.

Prosecutors this morning revealed that the 45-year-old man, who was arrested on November 9, worked at a university and had access to chemistry laboratories including explosive materials.

They said the man – who was motivated by nationalist and xenophobic tendencies – was also in possession of guns and munition, as well as the 3.6 tonnes (8,000 lbs) of explosives he had planned to detonate.

He has not been named, and is said to be refusing to undergo any psychiatric testing – but has confessed to plans to assassinate the state leaders, a crime which comes with a five-year jail term.

“He believed that the current social and political situation in our country is moving in the wrong direction” and that those in positions of power are “foreign”, prosecutor Mariusz Krason told reporters. “In his opinion they are not true Poles.”

Another prosecutor insisted: “The threat of an attack was real” – and published footage found among the suspect’s possessions, which shows him undertaking test explosions in rural areas.

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