SEOUL: A South Korean ruling party lawmaker was wounded after she was struck on the head by an unidentified assailant on Thursday, the MP`s office and her party said.

Bae Hyun-jin, 40, was hospitalised at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Seoul and her condition was not life-threatening, the medical institution said.

The lawmaker was bleeding before being transferred to the hospital in the South Korean capital, Seoul`s Yonhap news agency reported, adding she was struck on the back of her head with a rock.

The attack comes just weeks after opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck while talking to reporters in the port city of Busan. South Korea is gearing up for a crucial election on April 10, in which President Yoon Suk Yeol`s conservative party aims to regain a parliamentary majority for the first time since 2016.

Local broadcaster SBS aired CCTV footage released by Bae`s office, which showed the assailant following the lawmaker into a building and suddenly striking her head with an object. In the footage, he continues to attack her even after she falls to the ground. Park Seokgyu, a doctor at the Seoul hospital where Bae was being treated, said medical staff used a stapler to perform two sutures to treat a one-centimetre scalp injury.-AFP