Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a stable but serious condition after being shot several times on Wednesday, according to doctors.
The hospital director said he was currently in an intensive care unit after five hours in surgery.
Earlier Mr Fico, 59, was said to have been fighting for his life after being gravely injured in an attack in the small town of Handlova.
Miriam Lapunikova, director of the F. D. Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Mr Fico was admitted, told a press conference that his condition “is truly very serious”.
Fico was attacked at about 14:30 (12:30 GMT) in Handlova, about 180km (112 miles) from the capital Bratislava, as he greeted people in front of a cultural community centre where a government meeting had been held.
Footage showed a man raising a gun and firing five times at the prime minister before being subdued by bodyguards while other members of Mr Fico’s security detail took the prime minister into his car.
He was airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital before being flown to another hospital in Banska Bystrica, east of Handlova.
Later on Wednesday Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC’s Newshour programme he believed Mr Fico’s procedure in hospital had gone well.
President-elect Peter Pellegrini, who is a political ally of Mr Fico’s, said he was horrified to hear of the attack and also blamed the shooting on recent political divisions.
Describing the attack as an “unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy” he said people did not have to agree on everything, but there were ways to express disagreement democratically and legally.
World leaders have also condemned the attack on Mr Fico. US President Joe Biden condemned the “horrific act of violence” and said the US embassy was in “close touch” with the Slovakian government and was “ready to assist”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said there could “be no justification for this monstrous crime”. European Council President Charles Michel said “nothing can ever justify violence or such attacks”.
-BBC News
