see the crowds that are in front of the presidential palace. you might be able to see some of the people who laid down that flag back there, a lot of flowers back there, a different view than we had before. but you can just see that there are tens of thousands of people here in central warsaw. you see the square in front of the presidential palace. there is honor guard here, police here with motorcycles here, certainly officials coming and going out of the presidential palace throughout the evening hours. a crowd then making way for these people. but it really, really is an amazing scene to see how in this country, within really just a couple of hours so many people have come together to show their sorrow, to be in mourning, to pray. masses all throughout the evening here in this country. and certainly that is going to continue throughout the night. and then tomorrow, into sunday, of course, in this very deeply religious, deeply catholic country there are going to be more masses, more
see there is a sea of candles there, tens of thousands, if not over 100,000 people have come here. i can tell you that stream is just barely letting up a little bit now as it gets really, really late in this country. it is past 11:00 p.m. now in poland. but just masses of people have come here into central warsaw to the presidential palace to pay their respects to lech kaczynski and also to commemorate all the others who died so tragically. a lot of the leaders of this country who died so tragically in that plane crash in western russia, don? frederik pleitgen, thank you. 100 polish officials, the president, the first lady and senior military leaders. you see the memorial that is shaping up there. after nine terms, a michigan democrat says he s done in d.c. i will always serve the people of the first district, but i ve chosen not to continue to serve as their congressman.
really a blank on their faces. others in tears here in front of the presidential palace. many thousands of people have come here. i would say it is almost about 100,000 people who have come here to central warsaw. many of them lighting candles, many of them laying down flowers. certainly as you say, it is really an air of mourning, of sadness, not just for the deceased president, but as you said, many top officials of this country who were on that plane crash, large parts of the military leadership, also the head of poland s central bank. so certainly this is really a devastating loss for this country. you can see the people here coming together in mourning, bridging political divides in this country. there is just a general air of sadness and of shock, really, here in warsaw. frederick, if you could, could you pan the camera or have the cameraman pan the camera so we can see what s around you? reporter: i can sort of pan it forward. if you pan forward here, you can
leader around the world will be sending their sympathies to the people of poland. okay. and prime minister putin also will be heading that investigation when he does arrive there in west russia. now, poland, meanwhile, it is mourning not only the death of its president, but also the deaths of many other top officials. when we last spoke here, frederick, what was the most sad to see were certainly the pictures that were behind you of the people that were there, of the candles that had been lit, what are you seeing now? reporter: well, the picture really hasn t changed very much, richard, even though certainly it has become very late here in the polish capital. it is now after 10:00 p.m. here in warsaw. there certainly is still a stream of people here coming to the presidential palace here in central warsaw. really the scenes are very much like the ones i described before. people just sort of staring blankly into the air of the night here, many of them just
but there was a certain loyalty to the fact he was the head of state, he had good relations with the united states. he joined various international institutions, contributed to nato missions in iraq and afghanistan. so there was he did have popularity, even though he had a lot of opposition. but i think the important thing was his symbolism. he represented poland. and there is no question about that. he certainly was a major figure, representing poland in a very big way. ten had a major impact. one thing i will mention when he first came to power, he said he would do something about what his party that he and his brother created believed was too much communist influence inside poland. they said there was too many vestages of that communist era inside poland. they said they would tackle it. they took some steps. josh levs, appreciate your inp input. thank you for that. people in poland are mourning anne shock tonight. frederik pleitgen now in warsaw. who is in charge of this