Ex-US president, Donald Trump, shot during campaign rally (Video)

Former United States President Donald Trump was on Saturday, shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in an attack that has drawn condemnation from leading Republicans and Democrats as well as world leaders.

The shooting which US Security Services agents say was an assassination attempt, set off panic among the thousands of people attending the rally in the city of Butler in Pennsylvania, according to the BBC.

News outlets say the FBI have identified the gunman who was immediately shot dead as Thomas Matthew Crooks, aged 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

Trump’s campaign team, in a statement late Saturday, said the Republican presidential candidate was “doing well” after the shooting, which the former leader said pierced the upper part of his right ear.

Another media report said at least one spectator was killed and two others were critically wounded.

“The shooting took place after Trump, 78, just started his speech. The former president grabbed his right ear with his right hand, then brought his hand down to look at it before dropping to his knees behind the podium,” the report said.

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“Secret Service agents then swarmed Trump, before he emerged and pumped his fist in the air, appearing to mouth the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” He was later whisked from the stage and ushered into a vehicle.”

The former President who was treated and released from a hospital, wrote on his Truth Social platform:

“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. Much bleeding took place.”

FBI spokesman, Kevin Rojek, called the attack an assassination attempt and said it had taken the lead in investigating the case, adding that a motive was not immediately clear.

A US political analyst say the attack on Trump was the most serious assassination attempt on a US president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

“It is coming in a deeply polarised political atmosphere, just four months from the presidential elections and days before Trump is to be officially named the Republican nominee at his party’s convention – which his campaign said would proceed as planned,” he said.

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