A Polish mayor who was left fighting for his life after he was stabbed on stage during a charity event has died of stab wounds.
Pawel Adamowicz, the mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk, died after being stabbed on stage at a Polish charity event, Poland’s health minister said today.
He grabbed his belly and collapsed in front of the audience after he was attacked with a sharp tool last night.
The attacker reportedly shouted from the stage that he had been wrongly imprisoned when the mayor’s former party was in power.
‘That’s why Adamowicz dies,’ the attacker said as he brandished a five-and-a-half inch knife (14.5cm) knife.
The liberal mayor was attacked while attending the annual Great Orchestra of Christmas charity, a fundraiser where volunteers collect money for medical equipment in hospitals.
Pawel Adamowicz (pictured at Sunday night’s event), mayor of the port city of Gdansk, was attacked with a sharp tool during a fundraising event in the city tonight
Mr Adamowicz lies on the floor as medics come to his aid during the charity event in Gdansk
Television footage showed a man screaming ‘Adamowicz is dead!’ as he rushed the stage and stabbed the mayor.
Speaking on the stage before he was arrested, the man accused the mayor’s former party of putting him in prison and said he was tortured.
‘We couldn’t win,’ Poland’s health minister Lukasz Szumowski told reporters via private broadcaster TVN.
Doctors operated on Adamowicz for five hours after the incident, Poland’s state news agency PAP said.
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Krzysztof Sierak said today five prosecutors have so far questioned 20 witnesses and are preparing to question the 27-year-old suspect who lived in the city.
Sierak said there are ‘doubts’ as to the mental state of the attacker, who will undergo a psychiatric examination from two psychiatrists.
Prosecutors are also looking into the level of security at Sunday’s public event which was the 27th annual festive collection for the popular charity.
Polish Justice Minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, says prosecutors are looking closely at the trial five years ago of the man accused of stabbing the mayor of Gdansk and wounding him severely.
A man is held on the ground by security personnel after he attacked the mayor of Gdansk
A man holds a sharp object just after stabbing Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz in Gdansk
The suspect in last night’s stabbing was convicted of involvement in bank robberies and served the 5-year prison term in full.
Mr Ziobro, who is also the country’s chief prosecutor, said Monday the term was not very high given the crime, and noted the man was refused parole three times.
Ziobro, a prominent figure in the right-wing government, said he found no words to describe the ‘evil’ of this ‘terrible event.’
He said the thoughts and prayers of everyone were with Mr Adamowicz’s family, and expressed hope that his life will be saved, but said everything is in the hands of ‘providence.’
Poland’s president said he had initially been told ‘there is hope’ for the mayor’s survival after doctors reanimated his heart, but said his condition was ‘very difficult’.
But a doctor earlier today said he lost a lot of blood and suffered oxygen deprivation in a knife attack.
‘Despite all our efforts, we failed to save him,’ Doctor Tomasz Stefaniak, director of Gdansk’s University hospital said, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.
The mayor underwent five hours of surgery after suffering wounds to his heart and internal organs after the attack by an ex-convict who said it was political revenge on a party Adamowicz formerly belonged to.
A female medic attends to the mayor of Gdansk after he was stabbed and critically wounded
An ambulance thought to be carrying mayor Pawel Adamowicz on its way to hospital
Politicians across the political spectrum in Poland condemned the stabbing, including members of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS), such as Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski. Adamowicz was known as an opponent of PiS.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country’s ruling party leader was quoted as saying in a tweet from the party spokeswoman, said: ‘I’m expressing great pain for the tragic death due to the criminal attack on mayor Pawel Adamowicz. We express solidarity with his family.’
Polish President Andrzej Duda will meet with political party leaders today to organise a march against violence and hatred in the wake of the attack.
Adamowicz stood out for his initiatives to encourage migrants to seek refuge in the northern Polish city, and for his support of a protest campaign defending the rule of law in Poland against PiS efforts to increase its control over the judiciary and other bodies.
Adamowicz was one of Poland’s longest-serving mayors, holding his position in Gdansk since 1998. In the 2018 regional election, he won 65 per cent of votes.
Anti-violence rallies are being planned nationwide after Sunday’s shock attack on Mayor Pawel Adamowicz.
Lukasz Szumowski told local press, according to private broadcaster TVN: ‘We couldn’t win.’
Interior minister Joachim Brudzinski last night called the stabbing, ‘an act of inexplicable barbarity’.
Medical officials appealed for blood donations as Mr Adamowicz was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery last night.
A Polish broadcaster said a man had rushed on stage at around 8pm and said the mayor was seen holding his belly.
The University Clinical Center, in which the wounded Mayor of Gdansk is being treated
Radio Gdansk reported that Mr Adamowicz was stabbed near his heart as the attacker shouted from the stage.
Adamowicz later underwent surgery, deputy mayor Piotry Grzelak was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.
Earlier he boasted on Facebook that he hadd raised £5,000 for the event.
‘Thank you sincerely everyone who threw money into my can and helped beat my personal record,’ Mr Adamowicz wrote.
Mr Adamowicz has been mayor of Gdansk, a port city on the Baltic coast, since 1998.
He was part of the democratic opposition born in the city under the leadership of Lech Walesa during the 1980s which helped to bring down the Communist regime.
As mayor, he is seen as a progressive voice and has supported LGBT rights and tolerance for minorities.
He showed solidarity with the Jewish community when the city’s synagogue had its windows broken last year, strongly denouncing the vandalism.
European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, wrote on Twitter: ‘Let’s all pray for Mayor Adamowicz. Pawel, we are with you.’
President Andrzej Duda said yesterday that while he and the mayor have had political differences, ‘today I am unconditionally with him and his loved ones, just as – I hope – all of us compatriots are. I pray for his return to health and full strength’.
The fundraising event was organised by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, Poland’s most important charity.
It raises money for medical equipment Poland’s cash-strapped health care system has trouble providing.