(Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico suffered life-threatening injuries when he was shot and wounded in an attempted assassination on Wednesday, the government office said.

Following are reactions to the assassination attempt:

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN

"Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts are with PM Fico, his family."

GERMAN CHANCELLOR OLAF SCHOLZ

"News of the cowardly assassination attempt on Slovakian Prime Minister Fico shocks me deeply. Violence must have no place in European politics."

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY

"Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form, or sphere."

SLOVAKIA'S ACTING PARLIAMENT SPEAKER PETER ZIGA

"I perceive this as an attack on the principles of Slovak democracy. Such a horrible act has never happened in Slovak history. I consider it to be the result of whipped-up passions and the division of the Slovak society into two irreconcilable camps."

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER RISHI SUNAK

"Shocked to hear this awful news. All our thoughts are with Prime Minister Fico and his family."

AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR KARL NEHAMMER

"The attempt on the life of Slovak PM Fico shocks me deeply, no place for hate and violence in our democracies."

NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG

"I wish him strength for a speedy recovery. My thoughts are with Robert Fico, his loved ones, and the people of Slovakia."

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT CHARLES MICHEL

"Nothing can ever justify violence or such attacks."

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI

"I learned with deep shock the news of the cowardly attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. All my thoughts are with him, his family and the friendly Slovak people. Also on behalf of the Italian Government, I would like to express the strongest condemnation of all forms of violence and attacks on the cardinal principles of democracy and freedom."

BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER ALEXANDER DE CROO

"The attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico is an attack on democracy."

PORTUGUESE PRIME MINISTER LUIS MONTENEGRO

"On behalf of Portugal and myself, I express all my solidarity with my colleague Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, wishing him full recovery. We condemn in the strongest terms this unacceptable and barbaric act of political violence."

(Editing by Ros Russell)