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Former US president Donald Trump was rushed off stage at a campaign rally after an assassination attempt.

Shots rang out as he was speaking at the event in Pennsylvania, sparking panic in the crowd.

The former US president, who emerged with a bloodied face and was pictured pumping his fist in the air, says he was shot in the ear.

He had been speaking at a campaign rally at Butler Farm Show Grounds, about 30 miles (50km) north of Pittsburgh, on Saturday when loud bangs were heard.

The suspected gunman – later named as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania - was among two people killed. Two more people were critically injured.

The US Secret Service said the gunman had fired “multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position” but had been shot dead by service personnel.

Video footage from the event shows law enforcement snipers on the roof of a building behind where Mr Trump was speaking, although it is not clear if they fired the shots that killed the gunman.

The gunman had been on a rooftop about 130m (430ft) from where Mr Trump was speaking – one witness told the ���˿��� the gunman may have been hidden from the authorities by the slope of the roof he was lying on.

When the shots were fired, Mr Trump reached his right hand to his face before ducking as Secret Service agents surrounded him on stage.

As the agents began taking Mr Trump to his motorcade, he turned to the crowd, and with blood running from his right ear, he repeatedly pumped his fist in the air.