Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in life-threatening condition after the wounds he sustained from a gun attack on Wednesday, May 15, his deputy has told the BBC. Tomas Taraba told the BBC that Fico's surgery had gone "well" and "I guess that at the end he will survive".

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Fico, 59, was hospitalised immediately after being shot several times on Wednesday in the town of Handlova. He was said to have been "fighting for his life" after being gravely injured in the attack.

A suspect was detained at the scene of the shooting. Slovakia's Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estoka is reported to have described the attack as a politically motivated assassination attempt.

There has been no official update on the prime minister's condition since then, but the deputy prime minister has told the BBC that Fico was "not in [a] life-threatening situation at this moment".

"As far as I know, the operation went well and I guess that at the end he will survive," Taraba said.

The gunman was in a small crowd of Fico supporters who gathered outside a cultural centre in Handlova, where the prime minister was holding a meeting.

He fired five shots at close range and Fico was hit in the stomach and in the arm, according to media reports.

Fico, a third-time premier, and his Smer, or Direction, party, won Slovakia’s September 30 parliamentary elections.