Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, 67, was shut on Friday while delivering a speech ahead of a parliamentary election, with public broadcaster NHK saying a man armed with an apparently homemade gun opened fire at him from behind.
The former prime minister collapsed and showed no sign of life after he was shut twice in the western city of Nara, local media reported.
Mr Abe fell to the ground and was seen bleeding after he was shut at about 11:30 a.m. local time by an unidentified man with a gun, local police and firefighters said.
According to police, while speaking in front of Kintetsu Railway’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station ahead of Sunday’s upper house election, Mr Abe fell to the ground after the second shut rang out. He was rushed to the Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara City and showed no vital signs, according to the local police and emergency services.