Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe Shot At, Showing No Vital Signs After Attack. Suspect Arrested

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was attacked by a man from behind while he was making a stump speech on a street in Nara in western Japan on Friday.

New Delhi: The Japanese government on Friday confirmed that the country's former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was shot at during a campaign event earlier in the day. Abe collapsed during a speech in the city of Nara, in western Japan. Japan's public broadcaster NHK news said that its reporter on the scene heard two consecutive bangs during the speech and saw Abe bleeding. The former Japanese prime minister was showing no vital signs after the attack. The Associated Press reported a fire official in Japan as saying that Shinzo Abe was not breathing and his heart stopped while being airlifted to a hospital for gunshot wound.

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida called it a "barbaric and malicious" attack and said that it cannot be tolerated. "We will do everything we can...At this moment, doctors are working very hard to save Mr. Abe," Kishida informed, as he also revealed that the injured ex-PM was in a 'very grave condition', AFP reported.

"I would like to use the strongest words to criticise, and this is what I wanted to convey at this moment," Fumio Kishida said, as quoted by Reuters.

As per The Japan Times, Shinzo Abe was attacked by a man from behind while he was making a stump speech on a street in Nara on Friday. The Police seized the man who attacked Abe at around 11.30 am. The suspect is said to be a 41-year-old man named Yamagami Tetsuya, who is a former Maritime Self-Defense Force member, The Japan Times reported.

According to NHK news, the fire department said that the former Japanese prime minister is in "cardiopulmonary arrest", a term often used in Japan before death can be confirmed by a coroner. He is scheduled to be transferred by medevac to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara City in the prefecture.

Police also stated that the ex-PM appears to have been shot from behind with a shotgun. 

Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons. He was prime minister of Japan twice, from 2006-07 and again from 2012-20. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga and later by Fumio Kishida.