Top officials to attend Gdańsk mayor's funeral

Poland's current state officials including President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as well as a number of former heads of state and prime ministers will attend Saturday's funeral for murdered Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz.

"President Andrzej Duda will attend the funeral ceremony of tragically deceased Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz. In connection with this, he is in permanent touch with the prime minister and Gdańsk City Hall," the president's website informed on Wednesday evening.

Expected at Adamowicz's funeral are European Council head Donald Tusk, PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy PM Piotr Gliński and Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski.

The funeral ceremony will begin at noon on Saturday with a holy mass in Gdańsk's St. Mary's Basilica, where Adamowicz will be laid to rest.

Attendance at the funeral was also announced by former Polish Presidents Lech Wałęsa, Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Bronisław Komorowski as well as former PM's Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Waldemar Pawlak, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Marek Belka and Jerzy Buzek.

Saturday's ceremony will also be attended by the former President of Germany Joachim Gauck and the Mayors of Rotterdam, Bremen, Leipzig and Hamburg.

Duda has decreed a period of national mourning for Adamowicz from 5:00 pm on Friday to 7:00 pm on Saturday.

On Sunday evening Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz was stabbed by a recently released convicted criminal who rushed onto the stage during the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity finale in Gdańsk. The mayor suffered severe cardiac and abdominal injuries. Doctors reanimated Adamowicz on the spot and then transported him to the Medical University of Gdańsk hospital, where he underwent five hours of surgery. Adamowicz died from his injuries on Monday afternoon without regaining consciousness.