Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died in hospital after being shot during a campaign speech, local broadcaster NHK reports. Authorities have arrested a male suspect.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot on Friday during a campaign event in western Japan, public broadcaster NHK has reported.
“According to a senior LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) official, former prime minister Abe died at a hospital in Kashihara city, Nara region, where he was receiving medical treatment,” NHK said.
Police said a 41-year-old man had been arrested. Local media reported the suspect had served in the navy and left Japan’s Self-Defense Force in 2005. According to NHK, the suspect confessed to the police that he was unhappy with Abe and intended to kill him.
The attack has shocked a nation with some of the world’s strictest gun control laws. NHK reported that the shooter used a homemade gun.
Journalist Sonja Blaschke in Tokyo told DW that lots of people have “condemned the violence as the country is not used to events like this… The question is how the attacker could get past security.”
An NHK reporter on the scene said they could hear two consecutive bangs during Abe’s speech. Media reports said Abe was shot from behind and hit in the neck and chest area.
Abe, 67, collapsed and was bleeding from the neck, a source from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party said.
NHK footage showed Abe collapsed on the street, surrounded by several security guards. He was holding his chest with his shirt smeared with blood. (DW)
