Lawmaker Hector Olivares wounded in Argentina shooting outside parliament in Buenos Aires

An Argentine lawmaker was seriously wounded in a shooting outside parliament in Buenos Aires on Thursday that left his civil servant companion dead.

Deputy Hector Olivares, 61, was taking a walk in the square outside the National Congress at 7am with his friend Marcelo Yadon when they were ambushed from a car.

Olivares was hit with three bullets and is in surgery, his spokesman Hector Lencinas said. Yadon, 58, took five hits and died, lawmaker Jose Cano told television station Canal TN.

“We never received any threats of any type in the office. It’s an open office were everyone is welcomed. (Olivares) was very calm,” Lencinas told reporters.

Cano called the shooting a “premeditated act”.