- Someone pointed a gun at Argentine VP Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's face on Thursday.
- Video shows the moment they apparently pull the trigger and a click is heard.
A video shows the moment a man aimed a gun inches away from the Argentine vice president's face, but it didn't go off.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was greeting people outside her home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta on Thursday evening when a person emerged from the crowd and pointed a handgun in her face, The Guardian reported.
Footage of the moment, published by the journalist Lautaro Maislin, showed Fernández de Kirchner walking past a white vehicle as someone's hand appears on the screen holding a black pistol. The person then appears to pull the trigger and a click is heard, but no shot rings out.
—Lautaro Maislin (@LautaroMaislin) September 2, 2022
The video shows Fernández de Kirchner covering her face and hunching down before members of the crowd turn and apparently try to overpower the gunman.
She was left unharmed, Sky News reported.
In an address to the nation later on Thursday, Argentine President Alberto Fernández said the gun was loaded with five bullets.
"Cristina remains alive because for a reason not yet technically confirmed, the gun, which contained five bullets, did not fire," Fernández said, according to the BBC.
Fernández called the incident the "most serious event we have gone through" since the country transitioned from a dictatorship to a democratic government in 1983, the BBC reported.
"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," Fernández added.
Authorities identified the suspect as a 35-year-old Brazilian man, Reuters reported. He was taken into custody and his weapon was seized, the agency reported.
Police say they are still attempting to establish a motive, the BBC reported.
Fernández de Kirchner is currently the subject of a corruption trial and was returning from court when the incident happened.
She was accused of defrauding the state during her time as the country's president from 2007 to 2015. She denies the charges.