Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico shot and in hospital
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times and taken to hospital Wednesday, according to a post on his Facebook page and government statements that called the shooting an attempted assassination.
The Facebook post said Fico “has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition.”
“The next few hours will decide,” it concluded.
Doctors were still fighting for his life several hours after the pro-Russian leader, 59, was hit in the abdomen, Defense Minister Robert Kalina told reporters at the hospital where Fico was being treated for his wounds.
He described Fico’s condition as “extraordinarily serious.”
Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba later told the BBC’s Newshour that Fico was “not in a life-threatening situation at this moment” but was still undergoing surgery.
Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 140 kilometers northeast of the capital Bratislava, government officials said. Fico was shot after attending a meeting of his government in the town of 16,000, while “meeting with people,” officials said.
A suspect was in custody, and an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the shooting, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said as he briefed reporters alongside the defense minister.
The message posted to Fico’s Facebook account said he was taken to a hospital in Banská Bystrica, 29 kilometers from Handlova, because it would take too long to get to the capital, Bratislava.
The deputy speaker of Slovakia’s Parliament, Lubos Blaha, confirmed the shooting during a parliamentary session and adjourned proceedings until further notice, independent Slovak news agency TASR reported.
Presiden
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