Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay shot at rally

A presidential hopeful is fighting for his life after being ambushed by a gunman during a speech to his supporters.

A presidential candidate in Colombia is reportedly clinging to life after being shot while addressing a rally in the nation’s capital.

Horrific footage of the moment right-wing politician Miguel Uribe Turbay was ambushed by a gunman was shared on social media following the attack on Saturday, local time.

Mr Uribe, 39, was speaking before a small crowd in a park in Bogota when he was shot from close range. Several gunshots can be heard ringing out in the footage (see below).

Local and international media organisations have reported he was shot in the head or neck area.

His wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, said in a post on her husband’s X account that “Miguel is currently fighting for his life”.

“Let us ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who are treating him,” she said.

Miguel Uribe was shot during a campaign event in Colombia.

In more footage recorded at the scene Mr Uribe appears slumped against the bonnet of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men try to hold him up.

Some of the men appear to be applying pressure to Mr Uribe’s head with their hands before they pick him up and carry him toward medical assistance.

Media reported the suspected shooter was a teenager who had been arrested.

Attorney-General Luz Adriana Camargo told Caracol Radio that Mr Uribe was in “intensive care”.

Miguel Uribe Turbay (centre) has been a senator since 2022. Picture: AP Photo/Fernando Vergara

The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro said it “categorically and forcefully” condemned the attack on Mr Uribe during the campaign event in the west of the capital.

“This act of violence is an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,” the presidency said in the statement.

Senator Mr Uribe, a strong critic of Mr Petro, is a member of the Democratic Center party, who announced last October his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election.

He comes from a prominent political family in Colombia, with his grandfather Julio Cesar Turbay serving as president from 1978 to 1982.

His journalist mother, Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a rescue attempt after she was kidnapped by the Medellin drug cartel run by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Investigators inspect the scene where he was shot. Picture: AP Photo/Jhon Wilson Vizcaino

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination” of Mr Uribe.

Mr Rubio went on to claim the shooting was the “result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government”.

“President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials.”