Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico shot multiple times, expected to survive

Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times in what is believed to be a politically motivated assassination attempt.

Fico, 59, was shot five times, as he was leaving after a cabinet meeting in the central town of Handlova, approximately 190km (118 miles) northeast of Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava. 

According to a report by Al-Jazeera, the PM is no longer in a life-threatening condition. The gunman, believed to be a 71-year-old writer, is in custody. No one else was injured in the attack, the report said.

As per the report by the Associated Press which quoted local media, the gunman was a former security guard at a shopping mall, the writer of three poetry collections and held membership in the Slovak Society of Writers.
News outlet Aktuality.sk quoted his son as saying his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.

Fico is a former Communist Party member who took power for the fourth time last October and has turned the country's foreign policy towards more pro-Russian views.

In his current term, made several inflammatory comments about Ukraine, calling for Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow to end the war -- something Ukraine has repeatedly ruled out.