▲

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was the target of an assassination attempt during a military parade in the capital, Caracas, on August 5, 2018.

▲The politician has blamed Colombia for the incident, in which two drones carrying explosives were set off near the president's stand as he was giving a speech.

▲On June 18, 2016, a 20-year-old Brit tried to steal a gun from a police officer at a Trump rally in Las Vegas, with the alleged intention of killing the then-presidential candidate.

▲

Michael Sandford ended up being sentenced to 12 months in jail. The story inspired the BBC documentary 'The Brit Who Tried to Kill Trump.'

▲The German Führer survived a few dozen assassination attempts, but the most well-known was Operation Valkyrie, headed by the German resistance member Claus von Stauffenberg.

▲A briefcase filled with explosives was planted next to Hitler during a meeting, but it all failed when Generalmajor Heinz Brandt unknowingly moved the bag, which went off and killed him and three other men.

▲In total, the late Cuban leader was the target of assassination attempts on more than 600 occasions.

▲One of the attempts, allegedly plotted by the CIA, involved planting mollusk shells that contained explosives underwater, so that he would pick them up while scuba diving.

▲The former US President was meant to be the final target of a killing spree planned by two white supremacists in 2008, who would also murder several other African-Americans in the process.

▲Paul Schlesselman (pictured) and Daniel Cowart were convicted for attempted murder and sentenced to 10 and 14 years, respectively.

▲The late French President was the victim of a murder attempt as he was traveling on an automobile with his wife from Élysée Palace to Villacoublay Air Base on August 22, 1962.

▲Attackers fired over 140 shots at the car, but the chauffeur managed to accelerate as the de Gaulles ducked down, and the couple survived.

▲Twice Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party had been the target of a murder attempt before the December 2007 attack that took her life.

▲On October 18, 2007, two bombers targeted Bhutto's homecoming parade at Karachi's airport. The late politician survived, but the Al-Qaeda attack killed 139 people.

▲The US President was involved in a twisted murder attempt that involved a gunman and, somehow, actress Jodie Foster. Attacker John Hinkley Jr. approached Reagan outside a hotel in Washington, D.C. and fired at him six times.

▲One of the bullets ricocheted off the presidential limousine and hit Reagan in the chest, but he survived. Turns out Hinkley was obsessed with Foster, so he carried out an attack similar to what Robert De Niro's character does in the movie 'Taxi Driver' (which also stars Foster) just to get her attention.

▲On February 15, 1933, gunman Giuseppe Zangara attended Roosevelt's speech in Miami, during which he decided to climb on to a chair to see the US President-elect more clearly as he shot at him.

▲The crowd got hold of him after he fired the first shot, but he still managed to fire his gun another four times, hitting five bystanders, including the Mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak, who died a few weeks later from the wounds.

▲On election day in 2008, a man carrying sniper and Kalashnikov assault rifles was arrested in a flat near Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral, where Putin was due to give a speech.

▲Twenty-four-year-old Tajik Shakhvelad Osmanov had rented that flat as it offered a clear line of view to the cathedral stage, where Putin would be standing.

▲On September 25, 1997, Mashal, who at the time was the Jordanian branch chief of Palestinian party Hamas, was ordered to be killed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in retaliation for the Mahane Yehuda Market Bombings in Jerusalem.

▲One of the hired agents injected a toxin into Mashal's ear as he entered his office, and he eventually survived after King Hussein of Jordan and then-US President Bill Clinton convinced Netanyahu to hand out the antidote.

▲While Bulgarian political leader Ahmed Dogan was delivering a speech at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia in January 2013, a gunman approached the podium and pointed the weapon at him.

▲

Luckily, the gun failed to shoot and the assailant was tackled to the ground and arrested on the spot. The entire incident was captured on camera.

▲Bolsonaro was attacked by a man named Adélio Bispo de Oliveira. The man, who was taken into custody, said he was carrying out an order from God.

▲

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed at a campaign rally on September 6, 2018. The injuries to his intestines almost killed the controversial far-right candidate, but he made a full recovery.

▲

Former Prime Minister of Sudan Abdalla Hamdok survived an assassination attempt in March 2020 after his convoy was attacked with an explosive device on the way to his office in Khartoum.

▲

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, former Vice President of Argentina, stared death in the face on the evening of August 1, 2022, and made a narrow escape. The politician, who also served as President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, was greeting crowds of supporters outside her home when a man emerged from the fray and pointed a handgun at her face. The gun was not discharged and the man was subdued by the authorities. The then-President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, later told the public that the gun had been loaded with five bullets but jammed when the perpetrator attempted to shoot Fernández de Kirchner, foiling what could have been a horrific murder.

▲

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was the political leader in Pakistan from 2018 until April of 2022, when he was ousted from office by a vote of no confidence. After that, he began campaigning for an early election so that he could try to regain his position. He traveled the country in a convoy with his supporters to protest and campaign. They reached the city of Wazirabad on November 3, 2022, and were met with crowds of people waiting to hear Khan speak. He was standing on the back of an open truck bed to make his speech when someone in the crowd opened fire. Khan was shot in the leg, one person was killed, and 10 more were injured before the shooter was subdued by Khan's security and supporters.

▲

On January 2, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Lee Jae-myung, paid a visit to Busan for a public appearance. The opposition leader was giving a press conference at a construction site when a brazen attempt was made on his life in broad daylight. The 66-year-old attacker reportedly approached him under the guise of asking for an autograph, and suddenly lunged at Lee with a knife. The 59-year-old politician was stabbed in the neck before the assailant was restrained and arrested. Lee was airlifted to hospital where doctors confirmed that his injuries weren't life-threatening. Police say that the man intended to kill Lee.

▲

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Frico sustained life-threatening injuries from an attempted assassination that took place on May 15, 2024. Frico was leaving a government meeting in the town of Handlova and stopped outside the building to address a crowd. While he was speaking, it was reported that several gunshots rang out and Frico dropped to the ground. The shooter was immediately restrained by onlookers and law enforcement officers, while Frico was quickly carried to a waiting car and rushed to hospital. He underwent surgery and was able to leave hospital two weeks later.

▲

President Donald Trump famously escaped with a minor ear wound when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks took a shot at him during a rally on July 13, 2024. On September 15, Trump was playing golf on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was found in the bushes, taking aim at a member of his security team.

▲

Politics is a dangerous game, sometimes in a very literal sense. Pretty much any president will likely be the subject of multiple assassination attempts. However, some attackers come much closer to achieving their goals than others.

Click through this gallery to discover a long list of political figures who held onto their lives despite assassination attempts.