America is reeling tonight from an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It happened at a rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman on a nearby roof evaded security and shot at Mister Trump, who dived for cover. One member of the crowd was killed while protecting his family, and two others were injured. The gunman was subsequently shot and killed by the Secret Service. Donald Trump has called for Americans to stand united after the attack and President Biden has condemned it. But as well as shock, there's been immediate blame and counter blame and also a strong sense of foreboding as to what this means for the US. For our first report tonight, let's go live to our correspondent Gary O'Donoghue, who's in Pennsylvania and who was at the rally where the attack took place. Gary.

Rita. In just a couple of hours, the president will address the nation in prime time from the Oval Office, a sign of the magnitude of the events that have taken place here. We're learning about some of those who were injured and lost their lives last night as well. Corey Compatore, he was a 50 year old volunteer fire chief. He threw himself on top of his family to protect them from the bullets. Two others, David Dutch, James Copenhaven, both injured and stable in hospital. Everyone now trying to work out why and how this could have happened. Here's how the events of the night unfolded.

And, you know, that's a little bit old. That chart that charts.

It was just a few minutes into Donald Trump's speech when a volley of shots rang out. The former president could be seen clutching at the right side of his head. After that, he hits the ground as the secret service pile on top of him. Their job, to put their bodies between him and the shooter. When you look back closely at those moments, the sheer horror of the events is hard to avoid. First, the rapid gunshots, then a bullet captured in mid air on its way to its target. The former president going down to the ground. And then, with help from the Secret Service, getting to his feet. He's also resisting leaving the stage because he can't find his shoes.

Let me get my shoes.

A potent reminder of what shock can do to people's thinking in the moment. It's difficult to hear, but he tells them several times to wait before raising his fist. He can be heard saying the words fight. Fight. While all this was going on, close to the stage, we were outside hearing the shots, not knowing where they were coming from, afraid for our own safety.

We're just waiting to see if things have cleared. And we're just, as you can see, we're on the ground behind our car, which is not ideal, but that's the shelter we have at the moment. And that's what we're. That's what we're trying to ascertain what's happened.

As people streamed out of the venue, they told us what they'd seen. One man, a local business owner, described how he noticed a man he believed to be the shooter climbing onto a low roof nearby, holding a weapon.

We noticed a guy crawling, army, you know, bear, crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away from us. So we're standing there and, you know, we're pointing. We're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof.

And he had a gun, right?

He had a rifle. We could clearly see him with a rifle. Absolutely.

Get out of here.

We're pointing at him. The police are down there running around on the ground. We're like, hey, man, there's guy on the roof with a rifle. And the police were like, huh?

What?

You know, like they didn't know what was going on.

Get over here, get over here. What are you doing?

We now know at least one spectator was killed and two more critically injured. A doctor in the crowd tried to help.

I heard the shots. I thought it was firecrackers to begin with. Somebody over there was screaming, he's been shot, he's been shot. So I made my way over. I said, I'm an emergency department physician, let me help you. The guy had spun around and was jammed between the benches. There's a helicopter coming in to get him. So I got people there really helpful. I got a.

Was there only one person shot that you saw?

Yeah, I did CPR, did chest compressions, as well as a brief one.

President Trump was taken straight off to the local Butler county hospital. Shortly afterwards, he released a statement paying tribute to law enforcement and expressing condolences for those killed and injured. Later, he posted on truth social it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness.

Thomas Crooks.

The FBI has named 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the subject involved. He graduated from high school two years ago. Condemnation of the shooting was swift.

The idea that there's political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of. It's just not appropriate. And we everybody, everybody must condemn it. Everybody.

Joe Biden headed straight back to the White House, a rare oval office addressed to the nation in primetime, scheduled for this evening. Meanwhile, promising full investigations, the Biden campaign is suspending its activities for the time being. But Donald Trump, seen here after the shooting last night, has said he plans to go to the Republican National Convention on Monday as planned. In the meantime, investigations will continue, everyone asking, how could an attempted political assassination be part of modern day America? Gary O'Donohue, BBC News, Butler, Pennsylvania.

Well, what took place last night has left the United States and political leaders worldwide in shock. Sarah Smith joins us now. And Sarah, just describe the mood of the country right now.

I would say that most people are profoundly shocked and deeply disturbed by this. And not just Donald Trump's supporters, even people who vigorously oppose him are just aghast that this could happen in America. It's been over 40 years since anything like this has occurred. And it's really obvious to see from the pictures just how, how close Donald Trump came to being killed to being assassinated. That's why it's so very, very shocking. And it has happened in a country that was already deeply polarized in the middle of a really volatile election campaign and one in which, remember, each candidate was blaming his opponent for threatening the future of american democracy. It's a very febrile atmosphere here at the moment. And now we throw this violent incident into the middle of it. Joe Biden, as you heard there, has been condemning all political violence and calling for the nation to come together. But some of Donald Trump's allies are taking a very different track, and they are actually accusing President Biden of having incited this incident because of what they say is inflammatory rhetoric that he has been using to describe Donald Trump. So it is possible that this incident might actually deepen and entrench the divisions in America.

Sarah, thank you. Sarah Smith there. And we'll be hearing more from Sarah a little later in the program. Well, the FBI has named the gunman as 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooks. And authorities say that a motive has not yet been identified. Crooks lived around an hour's drive from the site of the Ranni in Pennsylvania in the town of Bethel park. From where Tom Bateman sent this report.

This ordinary suburb of Pennsylvania woke to news that one of their own tried to kill Donald Trump. 20 year old Thomas Crooks lived here with his parents. Now being told their son was dead, the FBI and state police raided in the darkness, trying to work out what motivated him and whether he acted alone. Does it make you feel knowing that.

He'S on the street, probably how anybody else would feel? You know, as far as I trusted, I trust the neighborhood, I trust the people. There's never been anything happening that brought the police down here.

He rode my son's school bus. So what happened? Tell me what you were told. They said that the state police came to the door and told us that we had to evacuate, that there was a state of emergency. And they said there's a bomb on the street. The police haven't confirmed a report that explosives were found in the family home. But it's known that Crooks followed a website about guns and detonations. The FBI is searching the house. They've been here through the night. And a key question for them will be over any motive and whether Crooks politics played any role. Records show that he was a registered Republican, but he also gave dollar 15 to a progressive or liberal campaign group on the day Joe Biden was sworn into office. In his high school yearbook, Crooks appears as a smiling teenager. One former classmate is baffled about what switched for this once diligent student.

He was always getting good grades on tests, everything like that. He was very passionate about history, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. He was a nice kid, and I had never had an experience with him where I was like, he, you know, isn't nice. He was always nice and I was always friendly to him.

America's suburbs were always set to decide this coming election. Now fear and angry division is deepening, not because of the ballot box, but the barrel of a gun. Tom Bateman, BBC News, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.