Slovakia's Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba has said that the country's Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was the victim of an assassination attempt, "will survive" and is out of danger.

"He will survive. He is not in a life-threatening situation at the moment", Taraba told the BBC.

According to the official, Fico "was heavily injured" after being shot. "One bullet went through his stomach and the other one hit a joint. He was immediately taken to hospital and then to surgery", he explained, adding that the operation "went well".

The update on his health came hours after Defence Minister Robert Kalinak announced that the prime minister was still undergoing surgery and was in a "very complicated health condition".

"The prime minister suffered multiple serious injuries after being shot. The operation has been going on for three and a half hours and the doctors are still fighting for his life", the official said at a press conference at the Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Fico is being treated.

Also present at the press conference, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said that it was the "saddest day for democracy in Slovakia's 31 years of existence".

The investigation into the crime has already begun and "initial information indicates a clear political motivation".

The suspect in the attempted assassination of the prime minister has been identified, according to local media, as Juraj C., a 71-year-old man, resident in Levice, about 80 kilometres from Handlova, where the attack took place.

After the attack, the Slovak prime minister was put in a car and then transported by helicopter to the Roosevelt Hospital "because it would have taken too long to reach Bratislava [about 150 kilometres away] due to the need for urgent surgery", his office said.

The suspect is in custody and a criminal case has been opened for attempted premeditated murder.

He could face life imprisonment, since, according to the Slovak Penal Code, a crime of premeditated murder is punished with a prison sentence of "20 to 25 years". However, if the attack "is directed at a protected person", such as a prime minister, the sentence increases to life imprisonment, explains SME.

The assassination attempt has already been condemned by several world leaders who say they are "shocked" by the "barbaric" and "cowardly" attack.

It should be noted that, since coming to power in 2023, Robert Fico has ended Bratislava's military aid to Ukraine and called for peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, drawing criticism from Ukrainian authorities and their European allies.

More recently, in early April and in a change of tone towards the Ukrainian conflict, he defended a peaceful solution that respects the country's "territorial integrity".

[News updated at 22:57]

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