Former Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a campaign speech in Nara in western Japan. We take a look at how things unfolded after the barbaric attack.
FP Staff
July 08, 2022 15:28:32 IST
Japan’s outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media as he arrives at the prime minister’s office for a cabinet meeting in Tokyo on 16 September, 2020 AP File.
New Delhi: Former Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a campaign speech in Nara in western Japan, public broadcaster NHK television confirmed on Friday.
His death was also reported by other broadcasters as well as the Japanese news agencies Jiji and Kyodo.
Abe was shot from behind minutes after he started his speech. He was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital.
Ten points on how things unfolded:
Abe was shot and critically wounded at 11:25 am, local time, during a campaign speech in western Japan. He was standing on the stage when a man dressed in a grey shirt and brown trousers begins approaching from behind, before drawing something from a bag and firing, a footage broadcast by NHK showed.
As spectators and reporters ducked, the man was shown being tackled to the ground by security. He was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, reports said.
Abe was bleeding from the neck, witnesses said and photographs showed. He was reportedly initially responsive but subsequently lost consciousness.
He is then airlifted to a hospital in Kashihara city, Nara region where the officials said he was not breathing and his heart had stopped.
Local media, meanwhile, identified the attacker as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, citing police sources, with several media outlets describing him as a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the country’s navy.
Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart in addition to two neck wounds that damaged an artery, causing extensive bleeding. He was in a state of cardio and pulmonary arrest when he arrived at the hospital and never regained his vital signs.
Abe was later pronounced dead despite emergency treatment that included massive blood transfusions, hospital officials said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country after the shooting, which he called “dastardly and barbaric.”
The attacker was wielding a weapon described by local media as a “handmade gun”, and NHK said he told police after his arrest that he “targeted Abe with the intention of killing him”.
News that Abe was assassinated on the campaign trail for Sunday’s upper house elections has brought the country, where gun-control laws are toughest in the world, to a standstill.With inputs from AFP and APWith inputs from agencies
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