Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico remains in a "very serious" condition after being shot multiple times on Wednesday.
The Smer leader, who is in his third premiership, was attacked with a firearm as he left a government meeting in Handlová.
At least four shots were fired outside a cultural centre, with a suspect arrested at the scene.
Mr Fico was taken to hospital in Banská Bystrica for surgery, with the government stating there was no time for him to be removed to the capital, Bratislava.
According to TV Joj, the alleged gunman is a 71-year-old man from Levice in southern Slovakia.
In a news conference, deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliňák said that Mr Fico had been in surgery for three and a half hours and remains in critical condition.
He said: "We experienced a tragic day, which for us means a fight for the life of the Prime Minister. It is difficult to find the words at this moment.
"He has suffered multiple serious traumas and his condition is very serious. We don't have any good news yet, we put our trust in the hands of the medical staff.
"Slovakia has always been a country of tolerant people who accepted other opinions and knew how to discuss them. What we experienced today is an insurmountable scar.
"But at the moment all of us think about the condition of our Prime Minister Robert Fico."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel