DE Online Desk
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was in a life-threatening condition in hospital Wednesday after he was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt.
The shooting took place after an off-site government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova.
The suspected gunman was among a small crowd of people waiting to greet the prime minister on the street outside the cultural center, where the meeting took place, local media reported.
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Footage from the scene shows the injured prime minister being bundled into a vehicle by his staff, before it speeds away with him inside.
Fico was taken to a local hospital and then transferred by helicopter to a major trauma center about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away in Banska Bystrica.
A statement posted on Fico’s official Facebook page and his party’s website called the attack “an assassination attempt.”
“He was shot multiple times and is currently in a life-threatening condition. The next few hours will be decisive,” the statement said.
No one else was injured in the attack, according to Slovak Labor Minister Erik Tomáš.
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Fico is the most powerful lawmaker in Slovakia. Unlike the president, whose role has limited scope, the prime minister holds rank as the decision-making head of government.
The official statement said the PM was taken to Banska Bystrica instead of the capital city of Bratislava because “an acute intervention” was necessary.
Handlova is about two hours’ drive from the capital Bratislava.
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Slovak President Zuzana Caputová said the suspected gunman was detained by the police.
She said law enforcement agencies will release more information when they can and asked the public not to spread unconfirmed rumors.
A video from the scene showed a man on the floor being detained by several officials.
Caputová condemned what she called a “brutal and reckless” attack on the 59-year-old politician.
“I’m shocked. I wish Roberto Fico all the strength in this critical moment to recover from the attack,” Caputová wrote on Facebook.
Speaking at a news conference later in the afternoon, she said the attack was “an attack on democracy as well.”
Following the shooting, Slovakia’s interior minister Matúš Šutaj-Eštok said the country is “experiencing the worst day of its democracy.”
“For the first time in the 31 years of our democratic sovereign republic, someone has decided to express a political opinion not in an election but with a gun on the street,” he wrote on Facebook.
Opposition lawmaker Maria Kolikova described the assault as “an attack on the internal security” of Slovakia. — CNN
