USA Trump recounts assassination attempt at party convention: "Blood everywhere"

Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention about the horror of the assassination attempt on him.

"My hand was covered in blood, just blood everywhere. I knew immediately that it was very serious," said the former president during his big speech at the finale of the convention in the state of Wisconsin. "There was blood everywhere, and yet in a way I felt very safe because I had God on my side." Had he not looked to the side at the moment he was shot, he emphasized, he would no longer be alive. "I stand here before you, in this arena, only by the grace of Almighty God." His supporters cheered him frenetically.

Trump went into great detail and said he would only talk about the attack on him once. "You won't hear it from me a second time because it's actually too painful to tell."

Trump: "Why is there so much blood?"

A gunman had opened fire at a campaign event in the town of Butler in the state of Pennsylvania on Saturday - shortly before the start of the party convention - and shot Trump. The perpetrator was killed by security forces. One visitor died and two others were wounded. Trump was injured in his right ear. He has been wearing a white bandage on his ear ever since. The incident was an escalation in the already heated US election campaign.

Trump said he had learned something new from the attack. "When something happens to the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body." The doctors explained this to him. "I asked: why is there so much blood?"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Pictures of Trump with blood on his ear and some blood on his face - and at the same time with a clenched fist - went around the world after the attack. His supporters thought he had been killed, said the 78-year-old. "I wanted to do something to let them know that I was okay. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people waiting breathlessly and started shouting: Fight! Fight! Fight!" He continued: "As my clenched fist went high into the air, the crowd realized I was doing well and roared with pride in our country." He had never heard anything like it before.