Flags in the Polish town of Gdansk are flying at half-mast, and there are candles at every nook and corner to mourn the death of mayor Pawel Adamowicz.

Adamowicz died in a hospital after he was stabbed onstage during an event on Sunday. He had been the mayor of Gdansk for over twenty years.

The mayor was attending the Great Orchestra of Christmas charity, an annual event where volunteers raise money for medical equipment in hospitals, when the attacker went up on stage and stabbed him. He alleged that he had been “wrongfully imprisoned”.

Hundreds of people had turned up in the hospitals of Gdansk after word spread that the mayor was in critical condition and that he had lost a considerable amount of blood.