Poland in shock after mayor dies from stabbing attack
— Thousands of people marched in rallies across Poland to pay tribute to the centrist mayor of Gdansk who died Monday, a day after being stabbed in the heart at a charity event.
Pawel Adamowicz died in hospital after a day-long fight by doctors to save him.
“Despite all our efforts, we failed to save him,” Doctor Tomasz Stefaniak, director of Gdansk University hospital, told Polish media.
Thousands marched in Gdansk, the Baltic city he ran for two decades, and thousands more turned out in the capital Warsaw. There were rallies in a dozen cities around Poland, the PAP news agency reported.
Sunday’s attack on Adamowicz, known for his liberal views and opposition to Poland’s governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, shocked the country.
Polish President Andrzej Duda honored the “great politician” and announced a day of national mourning to coincide with Adamowicz’s funeral, the date of which has yet to be decided.
The European Parliament held a minute of silence on Monday.
And European Council President Donald Tusk flew back to his hometown of Gdansk, to attend the rally in memory of his friend and former political ally.
He told the crowd, addressing Adamowicz: “You were always there whenever there was the need to be good and courageous and to take a stand against evil.”
“Goodbye Pawel, we’ll remember you,” Lech Walesa, Poland’s legendary anti-communist leader and another native of Gdansk, said on Twitter.
The surgeons who battled to save him in surgery said 53-year-old Adamowicz had suffered a serious wound to the heart and cuts to his diaphragm and abdominal organs.
Video footage showed the attacker, who police said was wearing a press badge, bursting on to the stage and launching himself at Adamowicz, as the mayor stood with others waving sparklers towards the end of the fundraiser.
After knifing the mayor several times, the man turned to the crowd with his arms raised triumphantly before being tackled to the ground by security guards and arrested.
Paramedics resuscitated Adamowicz at the scene before rushing him to the hospital.
Gdansk residents rushed to blood donation centers following news that Adamowicz had received 15 liters (32 pints) of blood and required more of the rare O Rh- type.