Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was pronounced dead at 5:03 pm local time on Friday at Nara Medical University Hospital, following a shock shooting incident that occurred as Abe was delivering a speech during a political campaign.
Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died in hospital on Friday, the facility treating him confirmed, hours after being shot at a political campaign event in an attack condemned as “absolutely unforgivable”.
The assassination of the country’s best-known politician comes despite Japan’s strict gun laws and with campaigning under way ahead of upper house elections on Sunday.
Earlier Prime Minister Fumio Kishida abandoned the campaign trail and flew to Tokyo by helicopter where he addressed reporters in a voice that wavered with emotion.
The attack came before noon in the country’s western region of Nara, where Abe, 67, had been delivering a stump speech with security present, but spectators able to approach him easily.
Footage broadcast by NHK showed him standing on a stage when a man dressed in a grey shirt and brown trousers begins approaching from behind, before drawing something from a bag and firing.
As spectators and reporters ducked, a man was shown being tackled to the ground by security. He was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Local media identified the man as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, citing police sources, with several media outlets describing him as a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the country’s navy.
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