Radek Pietruszka/PAP

There is little evidence suggesting the need to activate Nato’s Article 4 in response to Tuesday’s missile blast in eastern Poland, the Polish prime minister said on Wednesday.

Article 4 calls for consultations with allies if the territorial integrity, political independence or security of a member is threatened.

“Most of the evidence we have gathered indicates that it will probably not be necessary to trigger Article 4,” Mateusz Morawiecki said during a joint statement on the strike with Andrzej Duda, the Polish president.

Morawiecki added, however, that “this instrument is within our reach.”

He cited President Duda who had earlier said that the strike in which two Poles were killed was probably an “unfortunate incident” and not an intentional attack.

The missile, Morawiecki added, had probably been fired by Ukrainian defence forces in response to Tuesday’s mass missile attack on the country by Russia, and had fallen on Polish territory by accident.