Shocking moment man holds gun to head of world leader

The Vice President of Argentina narrowly escaped death after a gun fired at point-blank range jammed. Watch the wild footage.

A man pointing a gun at Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Picture: AFP

The vice president of Argentina survived an apparent assassination attempt after a fully-loaded pistol fired at her head jammed.

Cristina Kirchner, the country’s former president, was leaving a vehicle near her home in Buenos Aires when a man reached through a crowd to aim at her face.

“Cristina remains alive, because for a reason that has not yet been technically confirmed, the gun which contained five bullets did not fire despite the trigger having been pulled,” Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez said in an address to the nation.

“This is the most serious event that has happened since we restored democracy” in 1983, Fernandez said.

Video footage of the incident showed the man pointing a handgun at close range at Kirchner, who was the country’s leader from 2007 to 2015 and is now facing corruption charges.

The incident took place in Buenos Aires’ upscale Recoleta neighbourhood.

A man pointing a gun at Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Picture: AFP

“I saw this arm come up over my shoulder behind me with a gun, and with people around me, he was subdued,” a supporter of Kirchner, who did not give his name, told AFP.

Security Minister Anibal Fernandez said a 35-year-old Brazilian national was arrested on Thursday night local time, but investigators still needed to examine the crime scene and circumstances surrounding the incident.

President Fernandez declared Friday a public holiday to allow people to “express themselves in defence of the life of democracy and in solidarity with our vice president.”

Kirchner, a lawyer by training who succeeded her late husband, Nestor Kirchner, as president, stands accused of fraudulently awarding public works contracts in her political stronghold of Patagonia.

Government prosecutors have accused her of defrauding the state out of an estimated $1 billion and are seeking a prison sentence of 12 years and a lifetime ban from politics.

Hundreds of activists have gathered in recent days in front of her home to protest the claims.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing that they have said was proven,” Kirchner said last week.

The verdict in her case is expected at the end of the year.

She is president of the country’s Senate and enjoys parliamentary immunity, granting her some legal protection.

Even if convicted she would not go to prison unless her sentence was ratified by the country’s Supreme Court, or if she loses her Senate seat at the next elections at the end of 2023

With AFP

Originally published as Shocking moment man holds gun to head of world leader