The Prime Minister of Slovakia has been left in a life-threatening condition after being shot in an attempted assassination.
Prime Minister Robert Fico, 59, was shot and wounded while greeting crowds in front of a cultural community center in the town of Handlova, where a government meeting was being held, according to the BBC.
Several gunshots were heard before Mr. Fico's security bundled him into a nearby car, before he was taken to hospital.
According to reports, his condition has been deemed life-threatening.
Juraj Bury, a journalist who was inside the building when the attack occurred at around 2.30PM local time, said: "A crowd was waiting outside [the cultural center] and one of them started shooting."
A witness told the Dennik N website that she heard three or four shots before Mr. Fico fell to the ground, and claimed that she saw wounding to his head and chest.
Eyewitnesses claimed his guards helped him into a car from where he fell beside a bench, before he was reportedly airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital.
The BBC reports that he was later flown to another hospital in Banska Bystrica, east of Handlova, which is north-east of the capital of Bratislava.
A post to Mr. Fico's Facebook page from his staff said that he was shot a number of times and is "currently in a life-threatening condition", having been transported to Banksa Bystrica for urgent surgery.
The message added that the next few hours would be "critical".
The suspect accused of shooting the Prime Minister has reportedly been detained by police, and is believed to be the man seen in video footage from the scene being handcuffed as he sat on the ground.
Slovakia's outgoing president Zuzana Caputova said she was "utterly shocked by today's brutal" attack on the prime minister, condemning it in the "strongest possible terms", as well as wishing Mr. Fico strength to recover.
Mr. Fico returned to power in Slovakia following last September's elections, and his tenure has proved highly contentious politically after he halted military aid to Ukraine in January, and last month pushed through plans to abolish public broadcaster RTVS.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow.