The man who knifed and seriously wounded the mayor of the northern Polish city of Gdańsk is a repeat offender who was in the past convicted of armed robberies, the country’s interior minister said on Monday.

Reporters throng in front of the University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk where Mayor Paweł Adamowicz was taken after being stabbed and seriously injured during a charity event on Sunday. Photo: PAP/Adam Warżawa

Joachim Brudziński denied speculation in some media outlets that the assailant was driven by political motives.

Mayor Paweł Adamowicz, a well-known opposition politician, was resuscitated at the scene and rushed to a hospital in “serious” condition after he was stabbed several times during a charity event in the port city on Sunday evening.

During the night Adamowicz underwent a five-hour operation at the University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk. He had lost a lot of blood and was given a massive transfusion. People were lining up to give blood in response to appeals by officials.

Doctors said on Monday morning that his condition was unstable after he sustained a wound to the heart, a diaphragm injury and multiple abdominal wounds.

Adamowicz, who has served as mayor of Gdańsk since 1998, was re-elected to a sixth term in November.

Brudziński said in a Twitter post on Monday that the 27-year-old attacker was "a repeat offender who has been convicted of armed robberies, not a politician."

According to broadcaster Radio Gdańsk, the man, identified only as "Stefan W.," had a previous criminal record of four bank robberies.

He served five-and-a-half years in prison and was discharged in December, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR