Poland mourns Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz
Several thousand people mourned the death of Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz after he was stabbed at a charity event. Marches took place across the country, including Poznan, Krakow and the capital Warsaw.
Poland in mourning
Candles surrounded a picture of Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz as people paid tribute to him after he was killed. Adamowicz died in hospital on Monday, January 14 after being stabbed at a charity event the day before.
Christmas charity
Adamowicz, 53, was attending an event organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity when a man stormed onstage and stabbed him. The Gdansk mayor was rushed to the hospital and underwent five hours of surgery in an attempt to save his life.
Accused in custody
Security personnel quickly pinned down the perpetrator before police arrested him. A spectator video showed the suspect, allegedly a 27-year-old who was released from prison last month, claiming he had been wrongly jailed and tortured by the government.
March in Gdansk
Thousands of people marched against violence and hatred in Gdansk in the wake of Adamowicz's death. Gdansk, a port city in northern Poland, was the birthplace of Solidarity, an anti-communist trade union and social movement in the 1980s in which the late mayor took part.
Tusk in Gdansk
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council and a former Polish Prime Minister, led a moment of silence at a gathering at the main old city square in Gdansk to mourn Adamowicz's death. "I want to promise you today, dear Pawel, that for you and for all of us, we will defend our Gdansk, our Poland and our Europe from hatred and contempt," Tusk told the crowd.
'Stop hatred'
Several thousand people also marched through the Polish capital of Warsaw after Adamowicz' death. One held a sign reading "stop the politics of hatred." Marches also took place in the cities of Krakow in the south and Poznan in central Poland.