Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz has passed away despite desperate efforts of a team of surgeons to save his life following a knife attack on Sunday evening.

The information was released at the press conference outside the Gdańsk University Clinical Centre on Monday afternoon.





The attack



Mr Adamowicz was stabbed by a knife-wielding attacker during the finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity on Sunday. He was resuscitated on site and then taken to the Gdańsk University Clinical Centre.



“The damage was serious - a heart wound, a diaphragm wound, wounds of internal abdominal cavity organs. The upcoming hours will be critical,” Mr Stefaniak said at around 2:30 AM. Mr Adamczyk underwent five-hour-long surgery and had 41 units of blood transfused.



The mayor was on stage during the local finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, when a 27-year-old knife-wielding man intruded onto the stage and stabbed him several times in the chest and abdomen area.



The attacker has been detained and is now being questioned.



At a press conference, Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro said that the man was imprisoned for five years for four bank robberies in the past. His motivations behind the Sunday attack as well as mental condition have not been confirmed yet and the prosecutor refused to release any unverified information.



The attacker is to be chargsed with murder and is to be examined by psychiatrists.



Interior Minister has also announced that the security agency covering the event will be examined to determine if security standards have not been violated during the night.



Together against hatred



In a reaction to the attack, President Andrzej Duda has invited party leaders to a meeting at the Presidential Palace on Monday afternoon, the president’s spokesman said.



They are to discuss a plan for a joint march against violence and hatred that is to take place in Gdańsk on Tuesday.



The meeting will also be attended by PM Mateusz Morawiecki and Interior Minister Joachim Brudziński.