An official of the German far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) was shot and seriously wounded Wednesday, police said.
The victim, identified as Siegfried Weiss-Stuessgen, 42, is deputy chairman of the party's branch in Goeppingen, western Germany.
The father of six was struck by three bullets at about 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) in a parking lot, where he had apparently gone to pick up his truck left there overnight.
He was found about two hours after the shooting by a passer-by, who then called an ambulance, police said.
The regional prosecutor's office in the town of Ulm said that Weiss-Stuessgen had told officials before he underwent surgery that a masked man had fired several shots at him.
There were no immediate details about possible suspects or a motive.
The NPD, however, called the attack a political act and accused Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of whipping up violence against its officials in his call earlier this month for a "revolt of decent people" against right-wing extremism.
The German government has announced plans to file a request to the country's Constitutional Court to ban the NPD, accusing it of promoting racist and anti-Semitic violence.
"Chancellor Schroeder's 'revolt of decent people' against the NPD is bearing its first fruit," the party said in a statement.
"One can assume that this assassination attempt was politically motivated."
The party described Weiss-Stuessgen as very active in the party and said he was its candidate for an election to the state legislature of Baden-Wuerttemberg in March and a member of its platform commission.
Federal and state leaders are seeking ways to respond to a wave of far-right attacks in the country that have included bombings of Jewish sites and the beating to death of a black African in the eastern city of Dessau in June.
The interior minister of the country's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, said Wednesday that police have since August visited the residences of 575 people classified as neo-Nazis.
Fritz Behrens told reporters that police were making clear to potential troublemakers that "we are watching you."
He said the visits were a part of a larger program of efforts in the state to fight against right-wing extremism and that sympathizers with the far-right would also be watched and visited by police.
Such "house visits" were used earlier this year to survey and warn football hooligans, Behrens said.
In the latest incident, two youths were detained Tuesday for giving the straight-armed Nazi salute at a memorial at the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in eastern Germany -- GOEPPINGEN, Germany (AFP)
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