The former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was returning home from court, where she faces allegations of corruption. She denies the charges.
Police said
the gunman, who local media identified as a 35-year-old Brazilian man, has been
taken into custody.
They are
attempting to establish a motive for the attack on the left-leaning populist,
who was Argentina's president from 2007 to 2015, and its first lady for four
years before that.
President
Alberto Fernández revealed the gun was loaded with five bullets, but failed to
fire when triggered.
Video
circulating on social media shows the gun emerging from the crowd, and Ms
Fernández de Kirchner ducking to avoid it - covering her ears as she crouches.
In another
video, people in the crowd appear to try to block Ms Fernández de Kirchner from
the suspected gunman, who came within inches of her. The crowd has been
gathering outside her home for the last few nights in a show of support as she
fights charges of defrauding the state and being involved in a scheme to divert
public funds while she was president.
A police
spokesperson earlier told Reuters news agency that a weapon was found a few
metres from the scene after the man had been arrested.
Addressing
the nation late on Thursday night, President Fernández - who worked as
chief-of-staff to both Ms Fernández de Kirchner and her husband during their
tenures - said: "Cristina remains alive because, for a reason not yet
technically confirmed, the gun, which contained five bullets, did not
fire."
He went on
to condemn the attacker and said the attempt on Ms Fernández de Kirchner's life
was one of the "most serious" incidents since the country returned to
democracy in 1983.
"We can disagree, we can have deep disagreements, but hate speech cannot take place because it breeds violence and there is no chance of violence coexisting with democracy," President Fernández said, declaring a national holiday on Friday to allow Argentines time to "express themselves in defence of life, democracy and in solidarity with our vice president".
Argentina's
economy minister, Sergio Massa, called the attempted shooting an
"attempted assassination".
"When
hate and violence prevail over debate, societies are destroyed and situations
like these arise: attempted assassination," he said in a tweet.
Ms
Fernández de Kirchner has yet to make any comment.
She is
accused of defrauding the state and of fraudulently awarding public works
contracts in her stronghold in Patagonia while she was president between 2007
and 2015.
If
convicted at trial, prosecutors have asked that the ex-president face 12 years
in prison and a lifetime ban from politics.
However, Ms
Fernández de Kirchner is the Senate president and so enjoys parliamentary immunity.
She would not be imprisoned unless her sentence was ratified by the country's
Supreme Court, or she loses her Senate seat at the next elections at the end of
2023.
Ms
Fernández de Kirchner has faced numerous other corruption trials following her time
as president. The verdict of this trial is expected to take some months.
