Israel's Shimon Peres stable after mild heart attack

TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Shimon Peres, Nobel Prize winner, and former Israeli prime minister and president, is recovering after a mild heart attack, officials said Thursday.

Peres, 92, was treated for a blocked coronary artery, which caused chest pain and breathing difficulty. He underwent an angioplasty procedure at a Tel Aviv hospital.

Last month, social media featured erroneous reports he had died. After tributes poured in, Peres issued a statement saying the reports were exaggerated, prompting suggestions he was immortal.

Despite his age, Peres has kept a busy schedule. The hospital stay cancelled his plans Thursday to visit Israel's Soreq Nuclear Research Facility and attend a Ladino festival, celebrating Spanish-Jewish culture.

Rafi Walden, his personal physician and son-in-law, said Peres would be hospitalized for "a few days."

Peres served as Israeli prime minister for two terms, and was president between 2007 and 2014. He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for helping negotiate the Oslo peace accords with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

He was defeated by Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister in the 1996 general election.