Prince Charles to attend Poland President Kaczynski's funeral

London, Apr 15(ANI): Prince Charles is to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash near Smolensk airport in Russia on April 10.

President Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, will be buried after a state funeral at Krakow's Wawel Cathedral on April 18.

The Prince of Wales and his wife, Duchess of Cornwall, had visited Poland four weeks ago and stayed as guests of Kaczynski and Maria.

The duchess will be unable to join Charles because of a broken left leg, Clarence House said.

Apart from the Prince Charles, U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those expected to attend the ceremony, The BBC reports.

All 97 people on board the military plane from Warsaw were killed, when it crashed in thick fog while approaching Smolensk airport.

The Polish Foreign Ministry confirmed that along with the President and his wife, others on board included Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer, Army Chief Franciszek Gagor and National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek.

Some 88 of the dead were members of a Polish state delegation, who were scheduled to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of 22,000 Polish officers by Soviet secret police. (ANI)