Maldives ex-leader in ‘critical’ state

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was in a "critical" condition yesterday following an assassination attempt, doctors said. 

Nasheed, 53, the Maldives' first democratically elected president and now the speaker of the parliament, was rushed to hospital after an explosion late Thursday.

Since then he has undergone 16 hours of life-saving operations in the capital Male for injuries to his head, chest, abdomen and limbs. The private ADK hospital said earlier that shrapnel had been removed from one of his lungs and from his liver but that another piece was still in the same organ.

In a televised address to the nation, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced that a team from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) would arrive today to help with the investigation into the blast.

Maldivian police said they were treating Thursday's bomb attack as a "deliberate act of terror".

Police said a device attached to a motorcycle was detonated as Nasheed got into a car in the capital.

There was no claim of responsibility for Thursday's bomb attack, but officials close to Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said they suspected vested political interests opposed to his anti-corruption drive.