On May 15, 2024, an X user posted a video allegedly showing Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico being dragged into a car after being shot several times.
"BREAKING: VIDEO OF SLOVAKIA PRIME MINISTER ROBERTO FICO BEING DRAGGED AWAY AFTER HE WAS SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES," the X user wrote.
Similar claims appeared elsewhere on X, Instagram and in numerous Facebook posts. Together, the X posts alone had amassed more than 6.7 million views at the time of this writing.
On May 15, the Slovakian leader was shot multiple times in what officials described as an assassination attempt, as reported by The Associated Press, the BBC, Reuters, and many other credible news outlets.
Although Snopes could not determine the source of the video due to it being so widely circulated, the BBC included it in its article above, while numerous other outlets also used the footage in their coverage, such as NBC News, Euronews and CNN, as well as local media, such as The Slovak Spectator and Denník N.
In addition, a reverse-image search produced no evidence of the clip existing before May 15, therefore we have rated this video claim as "True."
Credible news outlets also posted different footage of the exact moment Fico was shot. The surroundings in that video match those in the clip of him being dragged into a car.
On May 16, Slovakia's Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliňák confirmed during a news conference Fico was in a stable but serious condition, at the time of this writing.