Traders pelted officers with bricks, in the process, police said after making 32 arrests.According to the Polish police, 32 other Nigerians are under detention following the development. The 36-year-old man took flight when a police patrol entered the market in the central Praga district, Police Spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski told AFP.
Traders threw bricks and other objects at police when they began to pursue him, Sokolowski said..
“According to certain witnesses, the man tried to wrestle a gun away from a policeman,” when it went off, he said.
“A police officer was wounded and hospitalised. Thirty-two people were detained, most likely all Nigerians, but we are still checking their identities,” Sokolowski added.
Investigators have opened an inquiry into the circumstances of the man's death. A similar case in Greece, another European country in 2007, had led to a massive protest by African immigrants.
The Nigerian in his 20s had died after he jumped from a building where he was selling pirated DVDs in a café in the Northern city of Thessaloniki..
He had fled when he believed police in the cafe were trying to arrest him.
The prefect of the region of Greece, Panayiotis Psomiadis, had condemned the action stating: “The tragic death of the young man from Nigeria reminds us all of the difficult days we Greeks experienced a few decades ago when we emigrated to make a living.”
The protest that ensued attracted immigrants from all over Africa while the police had a tough time trying to restore peace and order.
They fired tear gas while the crowd threw stone at them outside the police station holding up photographs of the dead man.
According to the prefect, it is the duty of the Greek state, whose development was influenced by emigration, to show sensitivity and attribute blame where necessary. Poland has diplomatic relations with Nigeria with its embassy in Abuja and that of Nigeria situated in Warsaw.
Many Nigerians had travelled to the European country on scholarship in the last three decades especially in the area of medicine and pharmacy. Intermarriages between them and Nigerians have led to the formation of Nigerwives, an association of foreign women married to Nigerian men.
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