TEHRAN, Sep. 02 (MNA) – An assassination attempt on Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina on Thursday night failed as a man pointed a pistol at her head and tried to pull the trigger, but the gun did not go off.

“Cristina is still alive because, for reasons that have not been confirmed technically, the weapon, which was loaded with five bullets, did not fire,” President Alberto Fernández said in an address to the nation late Thursday. “This is the most serious event since we recovered our democracy.”

The federal police arrested Fernando Andres Sabag Montiel, 35, a Brazilian man living in Argentina, in connection with the attack, according to the Buenos Aires police, New York Times reported.

Mrs. Kirchner, a leftist former president who is the most prominent leader in Argentina with three decades in the public eye, is a deeply polarizing figure in the country. Her supporters have rallied outside her home in Buenos Aires since last week, sometimes clashing with the police.

MA/PR