A former leader of Spain’s main right-wing political party in Catalonia who went on to co-found the far-right Vox party was shot in the head in Madrid on Thursday, a police source said.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras “was shot in the head around 1:30 pm (1130 GMT) on Nunez de Balboa Street in Madrid,” the source said.

“He was conscious and taken to hospital,” the source said adding that the National Police homicide unit was leading the investigation.

Emergency services in the Spanish capital said on X, formerly Twitter, that they were working to “stabilise a 78-year-old male injured with a firearm… in the area of his jaw”.

Vidal-Quadras was leader of the conservative PP party in the Catalonia region in the 1990s. He went on to be an MEP and then was among the founders of the far-right Vox party which he left shortly after its creation. (AFP)