Slovakia’s Prime Minister injured in ‘murderous’ attack

Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, leaving him critically wounded by multiple gunshots.

Slovakia’s parliament vice-chairman Lobos Blaha told local news agency TASR that the prime minister was wounded by a bullet.

The suspected attacker fired four shots, one of which hit the 59-year-old prime minister, Fico, in the stomach, state broadcaster TA3 reported.

A witness told Reuters news agency that he heard several gunshots in the town of Handlova, northeast of the capital Bratislava.

The eyewitness said that the police detained a person who was taken to an unknown location by security personnel in a vehicle.

Emergency services said a helicopter was dispatched to the scene immediately following reports of the prime minister being shot.

According to the French news agency AFP, the injured prime minister was initially given medical aid at a hospital in Handlova, but was later taken to the capital Bratislava.

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Marta Eckhardtova, director of Handlova’s hospital, told AFP: ‘Prime Minister Fico was brought to our hospital and treated in our vascular surgery clinic, but he was later transferred from our hospital to Bratislava.’

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Slovakia said that there has been an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico, but the spokesman did not give any details regarding his medical condition.

On the other hand, the President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen, condemned this ‘attack’ and called it a ‘heinous act’.

The government was holding a cabinet meeting in the city of Handlova, 190 km northeast of Bratislava, during a tour of various parts of the country following coming to power late last year.

The Central European country of Slovakia is a member of the European Union and NATO, where Prime Minister Robert Fico came to power for the fourth time last year.

Fico has been a supporter of mainstream and nationalist policies during his three decades in power. In the meantime, they have changed their policies according to public opinion or changed political realities.

After the attack, Slovakia’s main opposition party called off protests once morest the government broadcaster on Wednesday evening.