Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot in the wealthy Salamanca area of central Madrid at about 1.30 p.m. and taken to hospital.

Police were hunting a gunman and an accomplice who drew up near Vidal-Quadras on a black Yamaha motorcycle, shot him, then drove off.

Spanish politicians including the PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo and Vox leader Santiago Abascal expressed their shock and sadness at the attack and, with Spain’s Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, called for a thorough investigation and swift arrests.

“All my affection at this time for Alejo Vidal-Quadras and his family,” Sanchez posted on social media.

Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement Vidal-Quadras was the victim of a “cowardly attack” and wished him a speedy and full recovery, while condemning “an act of unacceptable violence, perpetrated against a political representative of an important European nation.”

Shahin Gobadi, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said in a statement on Thursday that Vidal-Quadras has been a staunch supporter of the Iranian opposition movement and fight for human rights in Iran over the past 25 years.

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