Colombian presidential candidate in 'critical condition' after attempted assassination - as 15-year-old suspect arrested

A 15 year-old-boy has been arrested after a Colombian senator running to be the country's next president was shot and "critically" injured at a campaign rally in Bogota, authorities have said.

Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was targeted during the campaign event in a park in the Fontibon area of the Colombian capital, according to the Attorney General's office. He suffered two gunshot wounds when armed assailants shot him from behind and appeared to be bleeding from his head as he was helped by aides and people in the crowd, in a video posted on social media.

According to a medical report at the Santa Fe Foundation hospital, he was admitted there in a "critical condition" and is still undergoing a "neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure". His wife Maria Claudia Tarazone wrote on X that he is "fighting for his life" and urged Colombians to pray for him.

Two other people were injured but the nature of their injuries has not been made public. A suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was arrested at the scene with a firearm and is being treated for a leg injury, police chief General Carlos Triana said.

The government is offering a $730,000 (£540,000) reward for information and President Gustavo Petro said the investigation will focus on who ordered the attack. "For now there is nothing more than hypothesis," he said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.

Mr Uribe Turbay, who announced his presidential bid for the right-wing Democratic Center Party in March, was accompanied by a team of 21 people at the time of the shooting, his office said, including councilman Andres Barrios. He was hoping to run in the presidential elections taking place on 31 May next year - and succeed Mr Petro, the country's first leftist leader.

His mother, who was a journalist, was kidnapped and killed in 1991 during one of the most violent periods in Colombia's history. Read more from Sky NewsGazans pray in rubble at start of EidThai hostage's body retrieved by IsraelInvestigators end search for missing toddler His party described it as an "unacceptable act of violence.