Kabila survives assassination bid

Congolese officials have insisted President Laurent Kabila survived an assassination attempt.

His son has been temporarily placed in charge of the nation.

Presidential spokesman Lambert Kaboye said the President was evacuated to an undisclosed country, where he was receiving intensive treatment.

Communications minister Dominique Sakombi Inongo has made the formal announcement the president is still alive on state-run television after an emergency Cabinet meeting.

President Kabila's son, Joseph, is already head of the armed forces and was reported to have been injured in the assassination attempt on his father.

State-run television has broadcast footage of him sitting alone silently.

It is not clear when the images were recorded.

A member of Kabila's security entourage said a bodyguard had shot the president in the back and right leg during 30 minutes of intense gunfire at the president's Kinshasa residence.

The British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain said Kabila had been killed.