Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ABC News
Topics: Royal Family, Crime, Politics, King Charles III, Prince Charles
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Royal Family, Crime, Politics, King Charles III, Prince Charles
Shockwaves were sent around the world this weekend when an attempt was made on Donald Trump's life during a political rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Since then, fans and foes of the controversial ex-President have, naturally, been reflecting on some of history's most astonishing assassination attempts.
What many don't realise, however, is that back in 1994, the current King of England - then Prince Charles - was almost victim to an apparent fatal shooting whilst touring Australia, with the monarch then reacting in such a way that spectators were in a state of amazement for years to come.
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Footage of the event was captured by those attending the Sydney visit made by the Royal, and has been doing the rounds on social media since Trump's near miss at the weekend.
Little did the monarch, now 75, know at the time, that university student David Kang had developed a convoluted plot to startle the father-of-two, by firing two blanks with a starting pistol.
In the short clip recorded moments prior, Charles could be seen walking up to the podium at Darling Harbour to address the hundreds who had flocked to see him.
From the colossal crowd, however, disgruntled student Kang fired the empty gun at the future head of state, and let off the first ear-shattering blow.
Charles could then be adjusting the cuffs of his jacket, his eye wandering over to where the initial noise had come from.
Without so much as flinching, the monarch was subjected to another blast, before Kang made his way onto the stage, where he was thankfully tackled by security.
Whilst some terrified onlookers were concerned for the Royal's wellbeing, others were downright perplexed by his calm reaction to the chaos ensuing before him.
Charles was then slowly accompanied off the stage, whilst Kang was arrested, with spectators absolutely flabbergasted by his unfazed and completely collected nature.
No one was aware at the time that the gun used by Kang held only blank bullets, and then it was being used to protest the 'extremely traumatic experience' of more than 100 Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention camps in the country at the time.
In the days that followed, Kang was found guilty of threatening unlawful violence and sentenced to 500 hours of community service.
The student later qualified as a barrister, and in 2005, he told The Sydney Morning Herald that he has since 'moved on' from the 'extremely traumatic experience'.
"To think about it even now unsettles me a little bit... what happened back then was extremely traumatic and the effect it had on my family was deeply upsetting," he explained.
Describing the event, Kang added: "Everything turned funny, turned quiet. I slipped the starting pistol out and stood up. I had to jump the picket fence.
"I heard a bang, then another bang... I'd shot the gun into the air, I didn't aim at anything. I thought I'd dropped the gun before I hit the stage, but it was still in my hand.
"I didn't trip on the stage, I deliberately fell, because I didn't have any intention to hurt anyone."
Kang also admitted that he couldn't 'believe' that he survived the attempt, adding: "When I slid across, nothing had happened to me, nobody had touched me."
Saturday's assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump marked the first most serious since Ronald Reagan was shot at in 1981.
Twenty-year-old Pennsylvania local Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle at the Republican leader on Saturday whilst Trump was addressing a crowd.
Whilst the politician sustained an injury to his ear, one audience member was killed and two others wounded.
Kitchen worker Crooks was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper.