Polish mayor dies of stab wounds

GDANSK, Poland: The centrist mayor of the Polish port city of Gdansk died on Monday, a day after a man stabbed him in the heart in front of hundreds of people at a charity event.

"Despite all our efforts, we failed to save him," Doctor Tomasz Stefaniak, director of Gdansk University hospital, told Polish media. Anti-violence rallies are being planned nationwide after Sunday’s attack on Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, known for his liberal views and opposition to Poland’s governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

European Council President Donald Tusk, tweeted that Adamowicz, "a man of Solidarity and freedom, a European, my good friend, has been murdered. May he rest in peace." Tusk, a fellow Pole born in Gdansk, was the late mayor’s political ally.

"Goodbye Pawel, we’ll remember you," Lech Walesa, Poland’s legendary anti-communist leader and another native of Gdansk, said on Twitter. And Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also offered his condolences via Twitter. It was a "devastating loss" for all "who value public service, progressive policy and open, accessible to all democracy", he wrote.

The 53-year-old Adamowicz had been in a critical condition with a serious wound to the heart and cuts to his diaphragm and abdominal organs, said the surgeons had operated on him for five hours.