JAPAN’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe minutes after the shooting incident.
JAPAN’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan and was airlifted to a hospital but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped, officials said.
Local fire department official Makoto Morimoto said Abe was in cardio and pulmonary arrest after being shot and was taken to a prefectural hospital.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that police arrested an alleged male attacker at the scene. “A barbaric act like this is absolutely unforgivable, no matter what the reasons are, and we condemn it strongly,” Matsuno said.
NHK public broadcaster aired footage showing Abe collapsed on the street, with several security guards running toward him, He was reportedly shot a few minutes after he started talking outside of a main train station in western Nara.
Abe, 67, collapsed and was bleeding from the neck, a source from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party told the Jiji news agency.
Neither the LDP nor local police were able to immediately confirm the reports.
NHK and Kyodo both reported Abe was taken to hospital and appeared to be in cardo-respiratory arrest — a term used in Japan indicating no vital signs, and generally preceding a formal certification of death by a coroner.
Several media outlets reported that he appeared to have been shot from behind, possibly with a shotgun. NHK reported that a man had been apprehended, though there were no immediate further details.
ARRESTED
Meanwhile, a man was arrested for attempted murder after the attack on Abe.
The man appeared to be in his 40s and a gun had been confiscated, said public broadcaster NHK, citing police sources.
