Bulgaria Govt Urged to Resign Over Gangland Shooting

"Gentlemen, you must resign," Atanas Merdzhanov of the Bulgarian Socialists said in parliament on Wednesday, reading out his party's declaration.

"Society is shocked by this brutal attempt on human life, on the right to life of everybody regardless of their social, legal, and personal status," he said.

Zlatomir Ivanov and his bodyguard were shot and wounded outside the main courthouse in Sofia on Tuesday.

Ivanov, 44, suffered four gunshot wounds but survived; he was attacked by a sharpshooter as he was entering the central courthouse in Sofia for an appeal hearing against an eight-year-sentence for drug smuggling.

Shoppers and office workers witnessed the attack, apparently launched from a nearby rooftop.

Medzhanov noted that the assassination attempt took place just metres away from the venue of Prime Minister Borisov's lunch with AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria.

"This is an impudent attack against the democratic foundations of the state and the security of the citizens, which has cast a shadow over Bulgaria's European face," the Socialists said.

Tuesday's incident is widely seen as a sign that the poorest country in the EU remains blighted by organised crime.

The US ambassador to Bulgaria, Marcie Ries, dubbed the assacination attempt troubling.

"Violence is never the answer," she said.