In a shocking incident, former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot at on Friday in Nara while campaigning for the upcoming election.
As per reports, he was “showing no vital signs” when he was taken to the hospital.
The incident took place around 11:30 am in Nara. Abe was making a campaign speech on a street outside the train station ahead of Sunday’s election to the upper house of Japan’s parliament.
A 41-year-old man, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami and believed to be a resident of Nara City, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for shooting at Abe and a gun had been confiscated from him.
Abe, 67, collapsed and was bleeding from the neck, a source from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party was reported as saying.
According to two witnesses, they heard two gunshots. The woman said that though the first gunshot was loud, she did not see anyone fall. But after the second shot, she saw ex-PM Abe collapse to the ground.
According to reports, Shinzo Abe collapsed after a second shot was fired. Several media reports said he appeared to have been shot from behind, possibly with a shotgun.
The government said a task force had been formed in the wake of the incident.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, held office in 2006 for one year and again from 2012 to 2020, when he was forced to step down due to the debilitating bowel condition ulcerative colitis.
Japan is a country with some of the strictest gun laws among leading economies and shootings are rare.
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