New York: Former US President Donald Trump was inches away from getting seriously hurt when he was shot at in Pennsylvania.
It is reported that a bullet flew past only grazing his ear while addressing a campaign rally here.
The 78-year-old leader hid behind the podium on stage as several shots rang out at the rally.
In the confusion that followed, Secret Service encircled the former president before escorting him off the stage.
Later reports said that there was blood on his right ears having spewed out after a bullet grazed the ear.
While being whisked off, he raised his fist to the crowd and shouted "fight, fight".
In a photo clicked by New York Times photographer Doug Mills showed a bullet whizzing past his face as he was delivering the speech.
BBC quoted a witness claiming to have seen the man who fired at Trump on the roof of a building near the event grounds.
The witness told the outlet that the shooter was armed with a rifle and "The guy crawled up the building 50 feet from us. He had a rifle."
The witness who claimed to have alerted police, Secret Service about the suspicious man, further told BBC: ‘I'm thinking to myself 'Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage'... the next thing you know, five shots ring out.’
Taking to his social media company Truth Social, Trump said he was ‘shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.’
He added that "I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin," he said.
Many across the political divide in the US came out condemning the attack on Trump with President Joe Biden saying there was "no place in America for this kind of violence".