Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, according to the government office statement.
Fico, 59, was rushed to hospital in the central city of Handlova after holding a government meeting there and was being transported by helicopter to the city of Banska Bystrica for urgent treatment, it said.
A Reuters witness heard several shots fired after the meeting in Handlova northeast of the capital Bratislava.
Police detained a man, and security officials pushed someone into a car and drove off, the witness said.
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Emergency Services said they had received information about a man being shot in Handlova shortly after 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) and sent an emergency helicopter to a 59-year-old patient.
Broadcaster TA3 reported four shots were fired and that the leftist prime minister had been hit in the abdomen.
President of the European Commission,Ursula von der Leyen, led condemnation of the attack, which also shocked the European Union and NATO member state’s allies in central Europe.
The Slovak government was meeting in Handlova, 190 km (118 miles), northeast of Bratislava, as part of a tour of the country’s regions after coming to power late last year.
(Editor: Ena Agbanoma)
