The shooting of Manol Velev, sports adviser to Bulgaria’s President and husband of State Agency for Youth and Sports (SAYS) head Vessela Lecheva, was an impudent act of organised crime, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said.

He was reacting to the shooting of Velev, which happened in the morning of July 11 in front of Velev’s office. He was shot in the head and twice in the body. Velev was reported to be in a coma and in a critical condition after Pirogov emergency hospital surgeons performed an emergency operation.

Bulgaria’s Focus news agency quoted Stanishev as saying that he would meet Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and Interior Ministry management to get further information on the case.

Stanishev described the shooting incident as “arrogant” and said that he would insist that the Interior Ministry did its best to find those responsible.

The worrying thing is that the attempt happened in broad daylight and in public, Stanishev said. He said that the country was not helpless in the fight against organised crime but the Interior Ministry needed to step up its efforts.