Former United States President Donald Trump has been shot in the ear during a campaign rally in an attack that drew condemnation from leading Republicans and Democrats and is being investigated as an assassination attempt.

The shooting on Saturday streaked blood across Trump’s face and set off panic among the thousands of people attending the rally in the city of Butler in Pennsylvania.

Trump’s campaign said the Republican presidential candidate was “doing well” after the shooting, which the former leader said pierced the upper part of his right ear. At least one spectator was killed and two others were critically wounded, according to authorities.

The Secret Service said it shot the suspected assailant dead.

Trump, 78, had just started his speech when the shots rang out. He 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. Secret Service agents then swarmed the former president, 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.

“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform following the shooting. “Much bleeding took place.”

The shooter’s identity and motive were not immediately clear.

The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a US president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It came 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.

‘It felt like an assassination attempt’

“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump as the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”

Ron Moose, a Trump supporter who was at the rally, described the chaos: “I heard about four shots and I saw the crowd go down and then Trump ducked also real quick. Then the Secret Service all jumped and protected him as soon as they could. We are talking within a second they were all protecting him.”

Moose said he then saw a man running and being chased by officers in military uniforms. He said he heard additional shots but was unsure who fired them. He noted that by then, snipers had set up on the roof of a warehouse behind the stage.

The shots appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.

Republican US Senate candidate David McCormick, who was seated in the front row at the rally, said he had started to go up on stage when Trump said he would have him come up later.

“Within a minute or two, I heard the shots … It was clear it was gunfire,” he told the Reuters news agency. “It felt like it was an assassination attempt … It was terrifying.”

The FBI said it had taken the lead in investigating the attack.

The Reuters and Associated Press news agencies, citing unnamed officials, said the shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt.

Leaders from both sides of the political aisle condemned the shooting.

“This horrific act of political violence at a peaceful campaign rally has no place in this country and should be unanimously and forcefully condemned,” Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on social media.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was horrified by what happened and relieved Trump was safe.

“Political violence has no place in our country,” he said.

Some of Trump’s Republican allies said they believed the attack was politically motivated.

“For weeks, Democrat leaders have been fuelling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America,” said US Representative Steve Scalise, the No 2 House Republican who survived a politically-motivated shooting in 2017.

“Clearly, we’ve seen far-left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.”

Hardline Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “Democrats wanted this to happen. They’ve wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.”

Trump, who served as president from 2017-2021, easily bested his rivals for the Republican nomination early in the campaign. He has largely unified around him a party that had briefly wavered in support after his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The businessman and former reality television star entered the year facing numerous legal worries, including four separate criminal prosecutions. He was found guilty in late May of trying to cover up hush money payments to an adult film actress, but the other three prosecutions he faces – including two for his attempts to overturn his electoral defeat – have been ground to a halt by various factors including a Supreme Court decision early this month that found him to be partly immune to prosecution.

Trump contends without evidence that all four prosecutions have been orchestrated by Biden to try to prevent him from returning to power.

World leaders condemn attack

Trump’s children took to social media to express their shock.

“This is the fighter America needs!” son Eric Trump wrote above a photo of his father with blood running down his cheek, his fist in the air and a US flag waving in the background as the Secret Service rushed him from the stage.

Donald Trump Jr posted the same photo on X, writing: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America.”

“I love you Dad, today and always,” daughter Ivanka posted on X, thanking supporters as well as the Secret Service for their “quick and decisive actions today”.

“I continue to pray for our country,” she said.

Global leaders also condemned the attack.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took office earlier this month, said he condemned all forms of political violence in the strongest terms and sent his “best wishes” to Trump and his family.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was praying for Trump’s speedy recovery and called for a firm stand against “any form of violence that challenges democracy”.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply concerned by the attack on my friend, while Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the shooting “must be strongly condemned by all defenders of democracy and political dialogue”.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, meanwhile, said he “fully” endorses Trump after the violence.

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote on X, sharing a video of Trump pumping his fist while being escorted away by Secret Service officials.