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- BBC News World
Updated 8 minutes
image source, Archyde.com
Image of Abe on the ground being treated following being shot.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been taken to hospital following being shot while giving a speech in the western city of Nara, national broadcaster NHK reported.
A network reporter said two shots were heard and then Abe fell to the ground.
The 67-year-old former president was unconscious when he was transferred to the hospital with a “cardiorespiratory arrest”.
The local fire service indicated that Abe had no vital signs when he was admitted, according to the NHK network, which also indicated that the former president was shot in the back.
A man in his 40s was arrested at the scene of the incident.
The chain broadcast images in which the former prime minister appears unconscious on the ground and with his shirt bloodied following suffering the attack.
image source, EPA
Abe was Japan’s prime minister from 2006 to 2007, and once more from 2012 to 2020, making him the longest-serving president in Japan’s history.
At the time of the attack, Abe was giving a campaign speech for a candidate in Nara, ahead of elections for the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing a man shoot from behind with a large firearm, according to BBC Japan correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.
The first shot would have missed but the second would have hit Abe in the back, who immediately fell to the ground bleeding.
Later, the security services arrested the attacker, who did not try to run away. Police seized his gun and identified him, according to NHK.
Abe was Japan’s prime minister from 2006 to 2007, and once more from 2012 to 2020, making him the longest-serving president in Japan’s history.
He resigned in 2020 for health reasons and later revealed that he had suffered a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease.
He was succeeded by his close party ally Yoshihide Suga, who was later replaced by Fumio Kishida, the current prime minister.
Attacks of this kind are unusual in Japan, a country that imposes strict restrictions on firearms and where there are hardly any incidents of political violence.
More information soon.
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