Circular saw, in particular for processing wood and/or plastic materials, comprising - a workpiece support surface with a saw slot, - a saw unit with a circular saw blade (110, 210) having a plurality of saw teeth for machining workpieces, - wherein the circular saw blade (110, 210) is rotatably mounted on the saw unit below the workpiece support surface and protrudes through the saw slot in a sawing operation mode, - a detection device for detecting at least one hazardous situation to a human body part by the saw blade (110, 210), - a safety device for preventing injury to a human body part by the circular saw blade (110, 210) by means of a safety measure, and - a control device which is signal-coupled to the detection device and the safety device, wherein - the control device is arranged and designed to initiate a safety measure by means of the safety device as a result of detection of the at least one hazardous situation by means of the detection device, - the control device is arranged and configured to evaluate a property of an object detected by the detection device in a monitoring area, in particular a remote monitoring area and a close monitoring area, and characterised in that - the control device is configured to ∘ detect a hazardous situation associated with the detected object based on the property and compare the detected hazardous situation with predetermined hazardous situations, ∘ the predetermined hazardous situations being stored in a catalogue, preferably in data form, and ∘ in the event of a determined correspondence between the detected hazardous situation and a predetermined hazardous situation, to control the safety device in such a way that it executes one, two or more predetermined safety measures. - a workpiece support surface with a saw slot, - a saw unit with a circular saw blade (110, 210) having a plurality of saw teeth for machining workpieces, - wherein the circular saw blade (110, 210) is rotatably mounted on the saw unit below the workpiece support surface and protrudes through the saw slot in a sawing operation mode, - a detection device for detecting at least one hazardous situation to a human body part by the saw blade (110, 210), - a safety device for preventing injury to a human body part by the circular saw blade (110, 210) by means of a safety measure, and - a control device which is signal-coupled to the detection device and the safety device, wherein - the control device is arranged and designed to initiate a safety measure by means of the safety device as a result of detection of the at least one hazardous situation by means of the detection device, - the control device is arranged and configured to evaluate a property of an object detected by the detection device in a monitoring area, in particular a remote monitoring area and a close monitoring area, and - the control device is configured to ∘ detect a hazardous situation associated with the detected object based on the property and compare the detected hazardous situation with predetermined hazardous situations, ∘ the predetermined hazardous situations being stored in a catalogue, preferably in data form, and ∘ in the event of a determined correspondence between the detected hazardous situation and a predetermined hazardous situation, to control the safety device in such a way that it executes one, two or more predetermined safety measures. ∘ detect a hazardous situation associated with the detected object based on the property and compare the detected hazardous situation with predetermined hazardous situations, ∘ the predetermined hazardous situations being stored in a catalogue, preferably in data form, and ∘ in the event of a determined correspondence between the detected hazardous situation and a predetermined hazardous situation, to control the safety device in such a way that it executes one, two or more predetermined safety measures.