TOKYO — Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, was in critical condition after he was shot Friday morning while speaking in western Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Footage on social media showed Mr Abe, 67, collapsed and bleeding on the ground in the city of Nara, near Kyoto. Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Bureau said Mr Abe had suffered gunshot wounds to his right neck and left chest.
Police said they had arrested a suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami. on charges of attempted murder. A police spokesperson said the suspect had used “weapon-like equipment”, which was found at the scene.
Images shared on social media show a man being dealt with after the shooting near Yamatosaidaiji station. The man was a native of Nara, according to: NHK, the public broadcaster. A detailed motive for the shooting was not immediately made public.
Mr Kishida, who had campaigned in Yamagata prefecture and returned to Tokyo after the shooting, said at a press conference that the attack had been an “atrocious act”, adding: “It is barbaric and evil, and it cannot be tolerated.”
He added: “Currently, doctors are doing everything they can. At this point, I hope and pray that former Prime Minister Abe will survive.”
Seigo Yasuhara, an officer at the Nara Fire Department’s command center, said Mr Abe had been under cardiopulmonary arrest after the shooting and had been taken by an ambulance – unconscious and without vital signs – to a medical evacuation helicopter. He was then transported to Nara Medical University Hospital, the Nara Fire Department said.
Hirokazu Matsuno, chief of staff to Prime Minister Kishida, said a crisis management center had been set up in the prime minister’s office.
Mr Abe was off the land longest serving prime minister and served two terms, from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020. He resigned in 2020 due to ill health.
The former prime minister was campaigning in Nara ahead of the Senate elections scheduled for Sunday. Mr Abe delivered a campaign speech on behalf of Kei Sato, 43, a current member of the Senate who is running for re-election in Nara. He hadn’t been talking for a minute when two loud explosive noises were heard behind him around 11:30 am
Yoshio Ogita, 74, Secretary General of the Liberal Democrat Branch of Nara Prefecture, stood next to Mr Abe. He said he heard two loud noises and saw a plume of white smoke rising to the sky.
Mr. Abe fell from a small 20-inch grandstand, where he had perched so he could rise above the crowd.
“I didn’t know what had happened,” Mr. Ogita said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “I saw him collapse.”