Former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has been shot with a short gun by a yet-to-be-identified man.
Abe was shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, NHK public television said Friday.
Footage of the incident shows Abe collapsing on the street, with several security guards running toward him before he was rushed to a hospital.
The former Prime Minister was giving a campaign speech ahead of Sunday’s election for the parliament’s upper house when the incident occurred.
A male suspect has been arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder, Truetells Nigeria reports.
Important things to known about the Assassination attempt:
– Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe shot in the back with shotgun
– At campaign event in Nara City
– Gravely injured, receiving CPR
– Suspect, man in his 40s, arrested
– No word on a possible motive.
Abe had served two terms as prime minister to become Japan’s longest-serving premier before stepping down in 2020 citing ill health.
He has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) party, controlling one of its major factions.
His protege, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, faces an upper house election on Sunday.
Abe has been best known for his signature “Abenomics” policy featured bold monetary easing and fiscal spending.
He was instrumental in winning the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo, which was later postponed by a year to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two.
He became prime minister again in 2012.
Abe hails from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a great-uncle who served as premier