A candidate in Ecuador’s forthcoming presidential election, Fernando Villavicencio, has been shot dead at a campaign rally.

A member of his campaign team told local media that Villavicencio was getting into a car after the event, when a man stepped forward and shot him in the head.

However, Ecuador’s attorney general, Diana Salazar, says the suspect was also shot in an exchange of bullets with security and later died from his injuries. 

A state of emergency has now been declared following the assassination.