• e-mail

A Polish mayor has died a day after he was stabbed on stage in front of hundreds of stunned spectators at a charity event. 

Pawel Adamowicz, 53, grabbed his belly and collapsed in front of the audience after he was attacked with a five-inch knife last night.

The attacker, a 27-year-old named only as Stefan by Polish authorities, reportedly shouted from the stage that he had been wrongly imprisoned when the mayor's former party was in power. 

The ex-convict shouted that it was revenge against Civic Platform, which the politician belonged to for many years. 

Polish Justice Minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, said prosecutors are looking closely at the attacker's trial five years ago and whether he was handed a long enough sentence for a string of bank robberies. 

Last night's stabbing suspect was convicted of involvement in the robberies and served the five-year prison term in full. 

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 

A man holds a sharp object just after stabbing Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz on stage in front of shocked onlookers 

But Mr Ziobro, who is also the country's chief prosecutor, said today the term was not very high given the crime, and noted the man was refused parole three times. 

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. 

'I was jailed but innocent, Civic Platform tortured me. That's why Adamowicz just died', the attacker allegedly said as he brandished a five-and-a-half inch knife (14.5cm) knife. 

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.   

A man is held on the ground by security personnel after he attacked the mayor of Gdansk

Liberal: Mr Adamowicz speaking at a rally during an election campaign meeting in Gdansk on October last year

A female medic attends to the mayor of Gdansk after he was stabbed and critically wounded

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.    

Mr 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'.   

An ambulance thought to be carrying mayor Pawel Adamowicz on its way to hospital last night

Mr Adamowicz delivers a speech standing with a banner reading 'No to nationalism and fascism in Gdansk' in front of people taking part in an antifascist demonstration in the city in April last year

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. 

The killing of Mr Adamowicz, a six-term mayor who often mingled freely with citizens of his city, sent Poland into shock. 

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.

People waiting to donate blood today for Gdansk's mayor at blood donation station in the city

The mayor's spokeswoman, Magdalena Skorupka-Kaczmarek, addresses the media at a news conference with deputy mayors Piotr Kowalczuk and Aleksandra Dulkiewicz

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. 

Mr 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. 

Mr 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.'

The attack triggered an outpouring of solidarity, with many people donating blood in Gdansk today. 

The University Clinical Center, in which the wounded Mayor of Gdansk is being treated

Law and Justice party spokeswoman Beata Mazurek said the attack should be 'absolutely condemned by all, regardless of what side of the political spectrum they are on'.

She insisted politicians in Poland need 'greater responsibility for words, for deeds' because 'there is no shortage of madmen on both sides' of the political scale.

Ruling authorities also sent a government plane to transport the mayor's wife, who had been travelling, from London back to Gdansk.

But the government's critics said they believed that animosity voiced against Mr Adamowicz by ruling party officials, sometimes carried on state television, as well as by extremists, played a role.

Interior minister Joachim Brudzinski last night called the stabbing, 'an act of inexplicable barbarity'.  

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. 

He showed solidarity with the Jewish community when Gdansk synagogue had its windows broken last year, strongly denouncing the vandalism.

Mr Adamowicz also advocated bringing wounded Syrian children to Gdansk for medical treatment, a plan blocked by the Law and Justice government.

After he took that stand, a far-right group, the All-Polish Youth, issued what they called a 'political death notice' for Mr Adamowicz.

The last politically motivated attack in Poland was in 2010 in Lodz when a man shouting that he wanted to kill Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski fatally shot an aide to one of the party's European Parliament politicians.