A prominent right-wing Colombian presidential candidate is in critical condition after being shot three times during an election campaign rally in Bogota, authorities said.
Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was speaking to supporters in the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee, after which he was detained.
Footage from the scene showed Uribe slumped on the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him down and stop the bleeding.
A security guard managed to apprehend the suspected attacker, a minor believed to be 15 years old, AFP reported.
Uribe was airlifted to a hospital in "critical condition," where he underwent "neurosurgery" and a "peripheral vascular procedure," the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogotá confirmed.
Uribe's wife posted on his X account that "he is currently fighting for his life".
Police director Carlos Fernando Triana said the suspect was injured in the brawl and was receiving medical attention.
Two other people - a man and a woman - were also injured and a Glock-type firearm was seized.
The motive for the attack is not yet publicly known, and Colombia's defence minister has promised that the military, police and intelligence services will use "all their capabilities" to find out what happened.
The attack was condemned from across the political spectrum and abroad, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it a "direct threat to democracy".
Rubio pointed the blame at Colombia's leftist President Gustavo Petro, saying the attack was "the result of violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government."
"President Petro must tone down the inflammatory rhetoric and defend Colombian officials," the senior U.S. diplomat said.
Petro "strongly and decisively" condemned the attack.
"This act of violence is an attack not only on his person, but on democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia," the presidency said in a statement.
Uribe, a strong critic of Petro, is a member of the Democratic Center party who last October announced his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election.
Authorities said there was no specific threat against the politician before the incident. Like many other public figures in Colombia, Uribe had tight personal security.
The country is home to several armed guerrilla groups, powerful cartels and has a long history of political violence.
Uribe is the son of Diana Turbe, a prominent Colombian journalist who was killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel.
One of his grandfathers was former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay, who led the country from 1978 to 1982 | BGNES