US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell treated for concussion

US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is being treated for a concussion after a fall at a Washington DC hotel, a spokesman has said.

"Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event on Wednesday evening," communications director David Popp said.

He will remain in hospital for "a few days of observation and treatment", Mr Popp added.

Mr McConnell, 81, from Kentucky, is serving a seventh term in the Senate.

He is one of the most senior Republican lawmakers and has led the party in the upper chamber of Congress since 2007.

President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he had spoken with Mr McConnell's family.

"I think he's going to be all right," he said.

Mr McConnell was at an event at the Waldorf Astoria DC when he fell, US media reported.

It was previously the Trump International Hotel from 2012 to 2022, and was popular with Republican lawmakers, lobbyists and foreign emissaries during Donald Trump's presidency.

Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate's majority leader, said Thursday he had spoken with his Republican counterpart and wished him "a speedy and full recovery".

Republican Senator John Barrasso, a trained physician, told CBS News that Mr McConnell was awake and talking to people. He added that he expected his colleague to make a full recovery.

The Kentuckian previously suffered a fall at his Louisville home in early August 2019 where he fractured his shoulder.

First elected to the Senate in 1984, he has been Senate Republican leader since 2007.

In a 2020 interview with Associated Press, Mr McConnell described having polio as a child, which made him less mobile than other children his age.

He said then he still had problems sometimes climbing stairs.