Polish mayor Pawel Adamowicz fights for life after man with knife stabs him in the heart at charity event
- The attack took place at a fundraiser for the purchase of medical equipment and the assailant was quickly apprehended by security guards and arrested
- Police said the suspect was a 27-year-old with a criminal record and had carried out bank robberies
A knife-wielding assailant stabbed the mayor of the Polish port city of Gdansk in front of hundreds of people at a charity event, leaving the politician fighting for his life on Monday after five hours of surgery.
Video footage showed the attacker bursting onto the podium and launching himself at Pawel Adamowicz, 53, who had been waving sparklers with others on stage at the Sunday evening fundraiser.
After knifing the mayor several times, the man turned to the crowd with his arms raised triumphantly but was quickly tackled to the ground by security guards and arrested.
Paramedics resuscitated Adamowicz at the scene before rushing him to hospital where doctors said early Monday he had survived an operation but was in a “very, very critical condition”.
The mayor suffered a serious wound to the heart and cuts to the diaphragm and abdominal organs, said Tomasz Stefaniak, the surgeon who treated him at Gdansk’s university hospital.