SHOCKING
....This is the shocking moment a man pointed a gun at a politician as he was
on stage delivering a speech today.
THE EXTRAORDINARY footage
shows the attacker climbing onto a podium and putting a pistol to the head of
ethnic Turkish party leader Ahmed Dogan in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The leader of the Movement
for Rights and Freedom struck the man before he could pull the trigger, while
other delegates wrestled the assailant to the ground.
Several people then ran onto
the stage and punched, kicked and stamped on the gunman while he was on the
ground.
Police arrested him and took
him to a hospital. It wasn't immediately clear if he sustained serious
injuries, or how he got past security to enter the hall with nearly 3,000
people attending.
Eventually, the attacker was
identified by police as 25-year-old Oktai Enimehmedov, a Bulgarian national and
ethnic Turk, from the coastal city of Burgas.
He was carrying the gas
pistol and two knives. A gas pistol is a non-lethal weapon used for
self-defense, but experts say when fired from close range it can cause
life-threatening injuries.
Interior Minister Tsvevtan
Tsvetanov told journalists that the assailant had a criminal record for drugs
possession, robberies and hooliganism.
The liberal MRF party mainly
represents ethnic Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria, who make up 12 per cent
of its 7.3-million population.
The conference had to elect
a new leader to succeed Dogan, who is one of the Balkan country's most
influential political figures.
The 58-year-old has been at
the helm of the party since founding it in 1990.
Lyutvi Mestan, who was
expected to become the new party leader, said "the true reason for the
assault was the language of hatred and confrontation."
Today's assault was the
gravest attack on a politician in post-communist Bulgaria after the 1996
killing of ex-prime Minister Andrei Lukanov.
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