Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot this morning while campaigning for a parliamentary electionin the Nara region. A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade gun as he spoke at a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media showed earlier. The former leader had been delivering a stump speech at an event ahead of Sunday’s upper house elections when the apparent sound of gunshots was heard.
Police said a 41-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting had been arrested. The shooter is a former member of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.News agency NHK quoted the suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him.
For nearly five hours after former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot this morning, doctors tried to save him, but he could not survive as he had a “wide gaping hole in the heart”, according to the hospital.
Police sources told local media that a 41-year-old named Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested after the attack on charges of attempted murder.Several outlets, citing the defence ministry, said Yamagami had spent three years in Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, the country’s navy, leaving the service around 2005.He reportedly used a “handmade” weapon, in a country with strict gun laws that make obtaining a firearm extremely difficult.NHK said he told police after his arrest that he “was frustrated with the former prime minister and targeted Abe with the intention of killing him”.
