Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe entered a cardiorespiratory arrest this Friday after being shot in the back while giving an election speech in the city of Nara, in southwestern Japan, according to local authorities.
Around 11:30 a.m., Abe, 67, was participating in an electoral act for his party when a 41-year-old man shot him twice with a shotgun, hitting at least one of the bullets in the back of the former prime minister Japanese, the NHK chain has reported.
After the shot, the former president collapsed on the ground and was rushed in a very serious condition to the nearest hospital by helicopter. On the way to the medical center, Abe has entered a cardiorespiratory arrest, according to the Nara fire department.
Japanese police have arrested a 41-year-old man, accused of attempted murder, and have confiscated his weapon. The suspect allegedly shot the former prime minister with a homemade shotgun. So far, he has not disclosed the reason for the attack, according to ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’.
Abe was participating in a Liberal Democratic Party campaign rally for the July 10 parliamentary elections at Kintetsu Yamato-Saidaiji station. Several hundred people had attended the event who later witnessed the assassination attempt.
The public present has begun to shout in shock after the shot and has requested assistance from medical personnel for the former prime minister, as seen in a video broadcast by a Twitter user who was present.
Abe served as Prime Minister of Japan from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister.
The Chief Secretary of the Cabinet of the Government of Japan, Hirokazu Matsuno, has confirmed the attack on former Prime Minister Abe at a press conference and has detailed that, at the moment, his clinical condition is unknown.
Likewise, he has assured that the Executive has installed a “countermeasures office” in the Presidential residence, while different ministries would have held a meeting to coordinate a response.
After the attack, the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, has canceled his electoral agenda and is already on his way to Tokyo, where he is expected to give a press conference, according to the chief of the Japanese Executive’s Cabinet.
“For whatever reason, this kind of barbarism is unacceptable and I categorically condemn it. The government will make every effort to take various measures,” added Matsuno.
