Former US president Donald Trump on Sunday told the New York Post he was “supposed to be dead” after surviving an assassination attempt which he described as a “very surreal experience.”

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the New York Post in an interview aboard his plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention where he is set to be confirmed as the party’s presidential candidate.

It was a “very surreal experience” he said with a white bandage covering his right ear, the paper said.

A gunman hit him on Saturday in a chaotic and shocking incident set to supercharge political tensions ahead of the polarising US presidential election.

Hours after the incident, the Republican candidate said he felt the bullet rip through his skin.

“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” Trump said on his Truth Social network hours later, in remarks sure to stoke the political hostility already engulfing the United States.

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”

He later could be seen walking unaided from his plane, though his wounded ear was not facing the camera in video footage posted by his deputy communications director. The New York Times reported that he was staying the night in New Jersey.

Police confirmed that a spectator was killed and two critically injured in the shooting, all of them male adults.

The 78-year-old former president was rushed off stage with blood streaked across his face after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, while the shooter and a bystander were killed and two spectators critically injured.

Assassination Attempt

The FBI confirmed in a press conference that the shooting was being treated as “an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump.”

The shooter, reportedly a registered Republican, was believed to be working alone.

His father Matthew Crooks told CNN that he was trying to establish “what the hell is going on”, and would not comment until he spoke to law enforcement.

After multiple witnesses said they saw the gunman before the shooting and alerted authorities, Butler police said they had “responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity”.

Trump later could be seen walking unaided from his plane, though his wounded ear was not facing the camera in video footage posted by his deputy communications director. The New York Times reported that he was staying the night in New Jersey.

Police confirmed that a spectator was killed and two critically injured in the shooting, all of them male adults.

The attack sent shock waves around the world, with the leaders of Britain, Israel, China and many other countries expressing outrage.