Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro being carried after knife attack in Juiz de Fora - MG
Numerous videos on social media showed Bolsonaro, whose far-right platform includes cracking down on crime in Latin America's largest nation, being stabbed with a knife to the lower part of his stomach. At the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand.
After the attack, he is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car.
Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed to The Associated Press that Bolsonaro had been stabbed and that his attacker was arrested.
Santiago said Bolsonaro was taken to a hospital in Juiz de Fora, a city about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro, and was in good condition.
Santiago said the attacker was identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, and that he was beaten up badly by Bolsonaro supporters after the attack. More information about de Oliveira wasn't immediately available.
Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro posted on Twitter that his father is doing fine.
The wound "was superficial and he is OK," wrote Flavio, who also asked for prayers for the family.
A statement from federal police said the candidate had bodyguards. In the videos, Bolsonaro does not appear to be wearing a protective vest.
Comment: O Globo reported Bolsonaro was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time but he was hit on the abdomen right below the vest.
"This episode is sad," President Michel Temer told reporters in Brasilia. "We won't have a rule of law if we have intolerance."
Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, is second in the polls to ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been barred from running but continues to appeal.
Despite being a congressman since 1991, Bolsonaro is running as an outsider ready to upend the establishment.
While he has a strong following, Bolsonaro is also a deeply polarizing figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays.
He also speaks nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His vice presidential running mate is a retired general.
Earlier this week, Bolsonaro said during a campaign event that he would like to shoot corrupt members of the Workers' Party. The comment prompted an immediate rebuke the attorney general, who asked Bolsonaro to explain that comment.
Other candidates quickly denounced the attack.
"Politics is done through dialogue and by convincing, never with hate," tweeted Gerado Alckmin, former governor of Sao Paulo who has focused negative ads on Bolsonaro.
Fernando Haddad, who is expected to take da Silva's place on the Workers' Party's ticket, called the attack "absurd and regrettable."
Reader Comments
Bolsonaro is a worse than Hillary and Trump together. He is a warmonger, he openly praises a torturer (Ustra) who inserted living rats, snakes and electrified wires into the vaginas of pregnant women because they dared opposed the (US backed, of course) military dictatorship. Bolsonaro is an evangelical born again Christian and endorses the Bible 100% - including the horrible parts. He supports and endorses the Israeli terrorist and apartheid state even more, because they were "chosen by God". He is a neoliberal, meaning, does the bidding of bankers and will screw over the poor and the middle class big time. In fact, he has already been doing that for 30 years as a parasite, a leech Congressmen. He is corrupt, took money from JBS, has confessed to using public money to pay for hookers (even though he is such a Christian - when it comes to hating on the gays). He has 3 sons and has managed to make all three of them politician, just like him, to suck the blood of the Brazilian people. Bolsonaro supports giving pré-sal (huge Brazilian oil reserves that were previously meant to be sold to foster national development) directly to American and British oil companies! He supports giving the Alcântara base to NASA and the USA. He supports selling EMBRAER (airplane producer company and national hero) to the USA. All he does in his entire life is lick the boots of the USA, Israel, church authorities and other evil authorities. Zero backbone, zero compasssion. Oh, and he is a biiig time racist! Is on tape recorded saying that quilombolas (descendents from slaves) aren't good "not even for reproduction". And that his sin would not marry Preta Gil (a black celebrity) "because they have good education". He has threatened to rape a fellow congresswoman... I am going to have to stop now because if I'm gonna keep naming every bad deed of this monster, I won't sleep today. Let's just say I really, REALLY wish, Hillary and Trump had a love child - the anti christ and he would win the 2018 election in Brazil - JUST AS LONG AS BOLSONARO DOESN'T!!!
Seriously I am going to migrate to Canada, Germany or whatever country I manage to get accepted... bonus: cold weather.
And this is an obvious false flag too. Every nation has their 9/11 and ours clearly is a 6/11!! Btw, I forgot to mention that Bolsonaro used to be military and his VP pick is military. And Bolsonaro was expelled from the military because he planned a terrorist attack against the military. How does that look like to you?
Now the 5th largest nation on planet earth and its 200+ million inhabitants are DOOMED thanks to this stupid stabbing because to make things worse, the Brazilian people have a thing for the underdog . They simply love someone who they perceive as the victim, And the evil entity who took the knife (if there even was one) will know how to exploit this.
What is happening here is the destruction of a nation. A big nation. You are all going to read horrible news from years to come if this creature gets into the Planalto palace.
Trump, with all his problems, is a nationalist. Bolsonaro's VP pick, Mourão, declared Brazil should sell the Amazon (that is nearly half the country's territorry) to the USA because the brazilian people are too incompetent to run it !!! That's how much of a patriot and a nationalist they are... again, they supported Temer in delivering our huge oil reserves to foreign powers like USA and UK submissively and want to deliver even more!
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, they pay continence to the flag! And they sing the anthem! And they wear the national colours! And the lowest of the low IQ in our country - which sadly is about half population - believe that what matters in order to decide if one is or is not a nationalist is APPEARANCE! you can let the USA, UK and France anally rape the nation until it bleeds, as long as you respect the flag and the anthem and you will be considered a nationalist and a patriot. Sigh...