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Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has been confirmed dead after he was shot at a campaign event on Friday, public broadcaster NHK and Jiji news agency reported. Abe was 67 .
Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader before stepping down for health reasons in 2020.
“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. He was 67,” NHK said.
While Abe was rushed to hospital , Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said ex-leader Shinzo Abe is in “severe condition” after being shot and he hoped that Abe will survive.
NHK public broadcaster aired dramatic footage of Abe giving a speech outside of a train station in the western city of Nara. He is standing, dressed in a navy blue suit, raising his fist, when a gunshot is heard. Footage then shows Abe collapsed on the street, with security guards running toward him. He holds his chest, his shirt smeared with blood.
In the next moment, security guards leap on top of a man in gray shirt who lies face down on the pavement. A double-barrelled device that appeared to be a handmade gun is seen on the ground.
Meanwhile , Japanese Police have identified the suspect arrested for shooting former prime minister Shinzo Abe on Friday as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old resident of Nara City, according to local media.
Abe, 67, was rushed to hospital after he collapsed at 11.30 am (local time) during a campaign speech in the western Japanese city of Nara ahead of Sunday’s elections for Japan’s upper house of Parliament.
Initial media reports, citing authorities, said that it appeared that Abe was shot at in the chest and described the condition of the former PM as in ‘cardiopulmonary arrest’.
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