Former United States President Donald Trump was rushed off stage after gunshots erupted at a rally in Pennsylvania in an apparent assassination attempt, reported BBC.
Video footage showed Trump grimacing and raising a hand to his right ear, before ducking as a series of shots broke out.
He was quickly swarmed by US Secret Service agents and dragged off stage to a waiting vehicle. Trump raised a fist as he was bundled into the car.
Later, in a post to his Truth Social network, Trump said a bullet pierced the “upper part” of his right ear. He wrote:
I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.
Blood was visible on Trump’s ear and face as US Secret Service agents rushed him away.
US Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the suspect was shot dead at the scene. He added that one bystander was killed in the shooting and two others were critically injured.
Law enforcement sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the male attacker had been armed with a rifle and had fired from an elevated structure a few hundred metres away outside the venue.
FBI agents, who are leading the investigation, told reporters in Butler that they had “tentatively identified” the dead gunman, but were yet to establish a motive.
Special Agent Kevin Rojek confirmed the agency was treating the shooting as an assassination attempt.
He added that the suspect was not carrying ID and that investigators were using DNA in an attempt to formally identify him.
Trump, who is the Republican candidate for president had just started addressing his supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania when the shots started.
Several supporters holding placards and standing behind Trump ducked as the shots were heard.
Witnesses who spoke to the BBC claimed the gunshots may have come from a one-storey building to the right of the stage where Trump was speaking.
One of the bystanders, identified as Greg, told the BBC that he had spotted a suspicious-looking person “bear crawling” on the roof of the building about five minutes after Trump took to the stage. He said he pointed the person out to the police. Said Greg:
He had a rifle, we could clearly see him with a rifle. We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground – we’re like “hey man there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle” and the police did not know what was going on.
Tim, who was also at the rally, told the BBC that he had heard a “barrage” of shots. He said:
There was a spray which we initially thought was a fire hose, and then the speaker on the right-hand side started coming down.
Something must have hit the hydraulic lines [which caused it to fall]. We saw President Trump go to the ground and everyone started dropping to the ground because it was chaos.
Speaking from his home state of Delaware, United States President Joe Biden condemned the attack, calling it “sick”. He said:
There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. Everybody must condemn it.
The White House later said President Biden had spoken with Trump before returning to Washington DC.
Trump is locked in a tight contest with President Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in a re-match of the 2020 election.
The next United States presidential election is set to be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Trump was set to accept his party’s nomination for president at the convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
Some Republicans blamed President Biden over the shooting, accusing him of stoking fears about Trump’s potential return to office.
More: Pindula News