Tokyo, July 8 (BNA) Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, one of the country’s most powerful and influential figures, was shot dead during a campaign speech on Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said.
Abe, 67, was shot in the back minutes after he began his speech in Nara. He was airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment but was not breathing and his heart stopped.
Hospital officials said he was later pronounced dead despite emergency treatment, which included massive blood transfusions.
Police have arrested the suspected gunman at the site of the attack that shocked many in Japan, which is one of the world’s safest countries and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere, according to the Associated Press.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events across the country after the shooting, which he described as “treacherous and barbaric.”
Head of the emergency department of Nara Medical University, Hidetada Fukushima, said that Abe sustained severe damage to his heart as well as two wounds to his neck that damaged an artery, causing massive bleeding.
Fukushima said he was in cardiac and pulmonary arrest when he arrived at the hospital and never recovered his vital signs.
Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader before he stepped down in 2020. Public television NHK broadcast a sensational video of Abe giving a speech outside a train station in the western city of Nara.
He was standing, dressed in a dark blue suit, raising his fist, when he heard two gunshots. Then the video clip shows Abby collapsed on the street, while security guards run towards him. He clutches his chest and his shirt is stained with blood.
The next moment, security guards jumped over a man in a gray shirt lying face down on the sidewalk. A double-barreled device that appears to be a handmade pistol seen on the ground.
Nara Prefectural Police confirmed the arrest of Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, on suspicion of attempted murder. NHK reported that the suspect served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events across the country after the shooting, which he described as “treacherous and barbaric.”
“I use the harshest words to condemn[the act],” Kishida said as he struggled to control his emotions. He said the government plans to review the security situation, but added that Abe has the highest degree of protection.
Opposition leaders denounced the attack as a challenge to Japanese democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to get extra editions of newspapers or to watch TV coverage of the shootings.
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