He added that Abe was unresponsive when emergency medics tried to resuscitate him. “We heard two loud sounds while he was talking and he fell immediately after that,” said Horii at a news conference. Iwao Horii, an LDP member of the upper house representing Nara, was standing next to Abe when the former prime minister was shot. Handguns are banned in the country and people must undergo extensive tests, training and background checks to obtain and keep shotguns and air rifles, CNBC reported. The incident sent shockwaves through Japan, where gun violence is extremely rare. Abe, 67, who stepped down in 2020, was campaigning for other members of the governing conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but is not a candidate himself. Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and government ministers traveling in various parts of the country would return to Tokyo immediately, he added.Įlections for the upper house of the Japanese Parliament are Sunday. “Such a barbaric act is utterly unacceptable, and we categorically condemn it,” he said. In brief on-camera remarks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Abe’s condition remained “unknown” and that one person had been apprehended in relation to the shooting. It said he had been admitted to Nara Medical University Hospital.
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Public broadcaster NHK, citing the local fire department, reported that Abe was in a state of cardio and pulmonary arrest, suggesting that his heart had stopped. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was giving a speech in the city of Nara when gunfire was heard around 11:30 a.m.