Resurfaced footage of King Charles’ ‘assassination attempt’ shows brave similarities to Donald Trump – mirroring the president’s defiant response….See More

When shots rang out at Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on July 13 last year, many in the crowd thought it was the sound of a car backfiring.

That was until the Republican politician was dragged to the ground by his Secret Service agents as they swarmed the stage to protect him.

As he defiantly got back to his feet with blood running down his face, the stunned viewers realised they had just watched his attempted assassination live on television.

But of all the people watching, perhaps King Charles knew the best just how he felt at that moment – because three decades prior, the royal survived his own apparent assassination attempt.

Just like Trump, the Charles was also giving a speech, but he was at Tumbalong Park in Sydney thirty-one years ago today to celebrate Australia Day.

The then-Prince of Wales was shot at with blank rounds (although no one knew that at the time) from a starting pistol by 23-year-old student David Kang in 1994.

Charles, then 45, won plaudits for his response as he was filmed calmly adjusting his cufflinks as his bodyguards wrestled Kang to the ground.

Kang later said that he carried out the stunt to highlight the plight of Cambodian asylum seekers being held in detention camps in Australia.

Within minutes of the drama occurring, both Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana – who had by then been separated from her husband for more than a year – were informed.

Charles had been about to present prizes to schoolchildren in front of a crowd of 20,000, but it was soon overshadowed as images of the incident were beamed all over the world.

The Prince of Wales’s private secretary at the time, Commander Richard Aylard, witnessed the moment Kang launched his stunt.

He said: ‘I saw this character running very, very fast towards the stage at the speed of a 100 metre sprinter. I saw him fire.’

Within minutes of the drama occurring, both Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana – who had by then been separated from her husband for more than a year – were informed.

Charles had been about to present prizes to schoolchildren in front of a crowd of 20,000, but it was soon overshadowed as images of the incident were beamed all over the world.

The Prince of Wales’s private secretary at the time, Commander Richard Aylard, witnessed the moment Kang launched his stunt.

He said: ‘I saw this character running very, very fast towards the stage at the speed of a 100 metre sprinter. I saw him fire.’

Afterwards, there was finger pointing over who was to blame for the security lapse in a similar fashion to what would happen following the attempt on Trump’s life decades later.

However, it was claimed that the Palace had asked that no police be placed between Charles and the public.

Terry Griffiths, the police minister for New South Wales at the time, said: ‘No one can take pride that an incident has occurred, but the level of security was agreed by all the agencies involved. His Royal Highness desired that level.’

But the discussion around the security failure was heightened in the immediate aftermath as the still active IRA had shown in decades past that they were prepared to kill members of the Royal Family.

In 1979 Lord Mountbatten who was a strong influence in the upbringing of Charles (his great-nephew), was killed by the terrorist organisation after it detonated a bomb under his fishing boat.

He and Charles were close, and fondly called each other ‘honorary grandfather’ and ‘honorary grandson’, according to Jonathan Dimbleby’s 1994 biography.

The brutal killing caused the possibility of assassination to lurk in the back of every royal’s mind from that moment on.

Robert Jobson later wrote in his 2023 book Our King: Charles III: The Man and the Monarch Revealed: ‘Understandably, Charles was profoundly affected by the murder of his beloved mentor and great uncle, Lord Mountbatten.’