Poland’s leading University of Warsaw is in mourning after a 22-year-old law student killed a woman working as a porter and nearly fatally injured a man who attempted to assist her, using an axe, on May 7.

The circumstances and motives behind the attack remain unclear. The attacker is reportedly a 22-year-old law student and a Polish citizen, according to local media. He entered the university’s main campus, located in the historic centre of the city, where access is largely unrestricted and which also serves as a popular walking area.

"The woman sustained multiple incised and chopped wounds to her upper and lower limbs, head, and abdomen. She did not survive the attack," Meditrans, a medical emergency service, told the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

According to witnesses, the woman was about to finish her shift with a round of the lecture hall she worked at before locking it up.

"I saw someone lying on the ground, and there was blood on the wall of the building. I thought someone had hit their head and wanted to help. When I started to approach, the attacker continued striking the woman’s body with an axe," one of the witnesses said, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.

Witnesses say the perpetrator remained eerily calm after the attack before he was apprehended by university guards and a member of SOP, the state agency responsible for protecting senior public figures.

The SOP officer was present on campus due to a visit by Justice Minister Adam Bodnar at the time of the attack. The minister was evacuated from the campus as soon as news of the incident emerged.

"This is an absolutely extraordinary situation. It is probably the worst event that has taken place at the University of Warsaw, and possibly at other universities, since World War II," University of Warsaw Rector Alojzy Nowak said at a press briefing, according to gazeta.pl, a news website.

Nowak also said discussions were underway regarding measures to increase security at Polish universities. "We certainly cannot allow what has happened to be in vain, and for this death—if I may put it that way—to be meaningless," he said.

The prosecution said on May 8 that the attacker's testimony was "illogical and incoherent," mandating a psychiatric opinion. The attacker has been charged with murder, attempted murder, and desecration of a corpse. The prosecution has withheld other, presumably extremely graphic, details of the attack.

It also transpired on May 8 that the man injured in the attack was no longer in life-threatening condition.