Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and current parliament speaker, has been injured in a suspected bomb explosion and rushed to hospital. The blast went off on Thursday as Nasheed, 53, was getting into his car in the capital Malé, an official from his Maldivian Democratic party (MDP) said. “It looks like some sort of an improvised explosive device, possibly rigged up to a parked motorcycle,” the official said. An investigation was under way, he said, but there were no details of Nasheed’s injuries. At least one of his bodyguards was also taken to hospital. Residents said the explosion was heard across the capital. Nasheed became parliament speaker, the Maldives’ second most powerful position, after his party’s landslide victory in April 2019 elections. He became the country’s first democratically elected president in 2008. He was toppled in a coup in 2012 and was unable to contest the 2018 presidential elections after a conviction on criminal charges. He returned to the country from self-imposed exile after his party won the 2018 elections and then entered parliament. The foreign minister, Abdulla Shahid, condemned the attack. He tweeted: “Cowardly attacks like these have no place in our society. My thoughts and prayers are with President Nasheed and others injured in this attack, as well as their families.”