The man who attacked Bulgarian Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Ahmed Dogan attempted twice to fire his handgun, but the weapon misfired.
This has been confirmed by Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who has arrived at the scene of the grave incident.
Footage by Kanal 3 shows Dogan ducking down and then being rescued by delegates, who proceed to severely beat the attacker before security personnel could set in.
Tsvetanov assured that the police and the National Security Service will do everything needed to restore order at the event.
It is not yet clear why Security Service officers, who are guarding Dogan, failed to prevent the incident and the beating of the attacker.
It transpired that the conference hall was not properly equipped with metal detectors, and not all delegates and visitors were inspected.