Logo Polskiego Radia

Official – there will be no end of the world in Poland

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 20.12.2012 12:45
The head of the Polish National Security Bureau (BBN) has said that “there will be no end of the world in Poland,” as Doomsday approaches on 21 December.

Indigenous
Indigenous people praying during a Maya ceremony in Iximche, Chimaltenango, Guatemala before the Mayan calendar ends on 21 December 2012: photo - EPA/SAUL MARTINEZ

“Maybe for some it will be the end of the world, I do not know. But in Poland it won’t be,” BBN chief General Stanisław Koziej told the RMF FM radio station after being questioned whether the predicted end of the world, as the ancient calendar of the Mayan people terminates on Friday, is a threat to Poland's national security.

Koziej said that though he had heard “a bit about the story somewhere”, from the point of view of Polish national security, the prediction is irrelevant as it is “highly unlikely”.

Poles have generally taken the news that the world will be coming to an end on 21 December in their stride, although Mayan apocalypse mania has taken root with many in Russia.

For a month now, some Russians have been buying up shop-loads of candles and matches, salt and torches in a desperate effort to protect themselves from doom.

The panic prompted Vladimir Puchkov, Russia's emergency situations minister, to invite Russians to call a special end-of-the-world hotline if they had fears that time was running out on Planet Earth.

On Thursday, as the clock ticked down to zero hour at 12 midnight, Chinese police arrested nearly 1,000 members of a Christian sect that had spread doomsday rumours. (pg)

Print
Copyright © Polskie Radio S.A About Us Contact Us