Former Maldives president injured in blast outside home

• Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed injured in a blast outside his family home.
• He was the country's first democratically elected president after winning the first multi-party elections in 2008.
• He was toppled in a coup in 2012 and was unable to contest the 2018 presidential elections.

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed suffered injuries in a blast outside his family home police said Thursday.

"Following an explosion... Speaker of Parliament President Mohamed Nasheed has sustained injuries and is currently receiving treatment at ADK Hospital," the statement said.

Images from state TV channel PSM showed security services securing the scene of the incident in the capital Male. A foreign tourist was also injured, the channel reported.

"Strongly condemn the attack on Speaker of Parliament, President Mohamed Nasheed this evening," the country's foreign minister Abdulla Shahid, a member of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party, said in a tweet.

"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." 

He became the country's first democratically elected president after winning the first multi-party elections in 2008. He was toppled in a coup in 2012 and was unable to contest the 2018 presidential elections after he was convicted of criminal charges.

However, he returned to the country from self-imposed exile after his party won the 2018 presidential elections and then entered parliament.