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Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the World Service of the BBC, coming live from London.

This is Owen Bennett Jones.

Well, Donald Trump was rushed to safety yesterday after shots were fired at a Washington hotel.

He was attending a gala dinner when someone in the building fired a weapon.

A secret service officer was shot at very close range, but saved by his bulletproof vest. The event was the

White House Correspondence Dinner. It's an annual affair for hundreds of diplomats and journalists

who took cover under the tables as the music was stopped and then the guest told to hit the floor.

Minutes later, the BBC's Catriona Perry, who was one of the guests at the dinner,

spoke to us on her phone about what she'd seen.

We were seated here. We were finishing off the starter course,

and the next thing there was a chrysuffle of a sound of breaking glass and tables being knocked over,

right by the entrance to the room here and a large law enforcement

armed presence rushed through rushed straight to the president rushed he and the first lady

all above the stage everyone was ordered to die for cover which we all did there was a noise that

sounded like shots i cannot say that they were shot.

I was speaking to an individual here who was outside of the bathroom,

outside of the dining room at the time,

and he said there were shot fired outside the dining room,

so not inside the dining room.

And once he was whisked away, the president spoke to reporters.

That was very unexpected, but incredibly acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement.

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