Poland Fires Warning Shots at German Pleasure Boat

Polish border guards fired warning shots at a German pleasure boat in the Baltic Sea after a squabble over the legality of alcohol and cigarettes sold on board.

German television reported that at least one warning shot was fired at the German steamboat near the island of Usedom, on the border between the two countries, which are both members of the European Union.

When the Adler Dania docked in the Polish port of Swinoujscie three Polish customs officials in plain clothes boarded it to check whether Polish tax had been paid on cigarettes and alcohol sold on board.

"Our crew was ordered to collect up all the spirits we had on board and these were to be confiscated," Adler-Schiffe, owner of the ship, said in a statement yesterday. "We are not going to continue sending ships to Poland as long as we are in fear of further violations of the rules by Polish customs."

The German captain, Heinz Arendt, refused the order, saying the officials had no identification and no search warrant. The ship headed out to sea with the customs officials still on board.

German media quoted crew members as saying they believed Polish coastguard had then fired at them with machine guns and rifles. Polish customs officials said the coastguard had merely fired blanks.

The customs officials said Mr Arendt disobeyed radio calls from Poland's coastguard ordering him to stop his ship and that they were pressing kidnapping charges against him. "We have the right to stop German ships in Polish waters just like Polish police have the right to stop German cars on Polish roads," said Janusz Wilczynski, spokesman for Polish customs in Szczecin.

The Adler Dania eventually returned to its home port of Heringsdorf in Germany.

The incident is the latest in a series of spats between the two countries. In August relations were soured by an exhibition in Berlin which focused on the millions of people who fled their homes in the last century. The show, Forced Paths, caused offence by documenting how Germans were forced out of Poland and eastern Europe at the end of the second world war. The Polish prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said it was a sign Germany was shirking its responsibility for the war.

Earlier this year the Polish leadership took offence at a satire in the German Tageszeitung newspaper. The article targeted the president, Lech Kaczynski, and his twin brother, the prime minister, nicknaming them "new potatoes" and ridiculing Jaroslaw for still living with his mother. The protracted clash became known as the "potato war" .