BRATISLAVA, May  15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico
was battling life-threatening wounds Wednesday after officials said he was shot
multiple times in an assassination attempt condemned by European leaders.

Dramatic footage from the scene in central Slovakia shows security agents
grabbing a wounded Fico from the ground and hustling him into a black car that
speeds away as police handcuff a person on the pavement.

Police detained the suspected gunman at the site of attack in Handlova,
outgoing Slovak President Zuzana Caputova told reporters after the seemingly
unprecedented act of violence against a Slovak prime minister.

"I am shocked, we are all shocked by the terrible and heinous attack," she
added.

Fico was shot multiple times, said a post on his official Facebook page.
"Today, after the government meeting in Handlova, there was an
assassination attempt" on Fico, the government said, adding he was flown to
hospital "in a life-threatening condition".

Images from public television RTVS showed a person on a stretcher taken out
of a helicopter by medics and wheeled into a hospital.

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 reported that Fico was still in the operating room after
being taken to the hospital before 1400 GMT.

Fico, whose Smer-SD party won the general election last September, is a
four-time prime minister and a political veteran accused of swaying his
country's foreign policy in favour of the Kremlin.

Local media reported that the suspected gunman was a 71-year-old writer,
but police have not name any suspects.
"I have absolutely no idea what father was thinking, what he was planning,
why it happened," the alleged suspect's son told Slovak news site aktuality.sk.

Analyst Grigorij Meseznikov told AFP "there has been no (previous) attack
on any minister or prime minister in Slovakia."

"I only remember the case of former minister of economy Jan Ducky who was
shot dead in 1999," he added. "But he had not been politically active anymore
when he was killed."

- Attack condemned -

Slovak president-elect and Fico ally Peter Pellegrini said he learned of
the shooting "with horror".

"An assassination attempt on one of the highest constitutional officials is
an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy," he added on X, formerly Twitter.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen denounced the "vile attack" while NATO chief
Jens Stoltenberg said he was "shocked and appalled".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the "appalling" shooting
and wished Fico a speedy recovery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the shooting a "heinous crime".

"I know Robert Fico to be a courageous and strong-spirited man. I very much
hope that these qualities will help him to withstand this difficult situation,"
Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

- Ukraine remarks -

As well as his current stint as premier, Fico also headed the government in
2006-10 and 2012-18.

Since he assumed office last October, Fico has made a string of remarks
that have soured ties between Slovakia and neighbouring Ukraine.

He has notably questioned Ukraine's sovereignty and called for a compromise
with Russia, which invaded in 2022.

After he was elected, Slovakia stopped sending weapons to Ukraine. He
pledged during the electoral campaign not to provide Kyiv with "a single
bullet".

He also sparked mass protests with controversial changes, including a media
law that critics say will undermine the impartiality of public television and
radio.
At a press conference following the shooting, MP Lubos Blaha from Fico's
party lashed out against his critics.

"You, the liberal media, and progressive politicians are to blame. Robert
Fico is fighting for his life because of your hatred," Blaha said.