Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico was on Wednesday shot multiple times and rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries after a cabinet meeting, officials said, in an attack condemned by European Union chiefs.
Fico, a populist leader accused of being Kremlin-friendly, has been prime minister since last year.
“Today, after the government meeting in Handlova, there was an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Robert Fico”, the government said in a post on social media.
“He is currently being transported by helicopter to Banska Bystrica in a life-threatening condition because it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute intervention”, it said.
Fico was shot multiple times, according to a post on his official Facebook page.
“We confirm the attack on the prime minister,” police spokesman Matej Neumann told AFP.
Handlova local hospital director Marta Eckhardtova said “Fico was brought into our hospital and he was treated at our vascular surgery clinic”.
She was unable to describe his injuries.
The Dennik N daily said its reporter heard several shots fired and then saw security guards lift the premier off the ground and into a car.
The newspaper also reported that police had detained the suspected gunman.
