TOKYO, July 8(ABC): Japan´s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has been shot, a government spokesman said Friday, as local media reported the ex-premier was showing no vital signs.
“Former prime minister Abe was shot at around 11:30 am,” in the country´s western region of Nara, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
“One man, believed to be the shooter, has been taken into custody. The condition of former prime minister Abe is currently unknown.”
“Whatever the reason, such a barbaric act can never be tolerated, and we strongly condemn it,” Matsuno added.
Local media including national broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo news agency said the former prime minister appeared to be in “cardiorespiratory arrest,” a term often used in Japan before a feared death can be officially confirmed by a coroner.
It was a stunning development in a country with famously low levels of violent crime and tough gun laws, involving perhaps Japan´s best-known politician.
Abe had been delivering a stump speech at an event ahead of Sunday´s upper house elections when the apparent sound of gunshots was heard, NHK and Kyodo said.
“He was giving a speech and a man came from behind,” a young woman at the scene told NHK.
“The first shot sounded like a toy. He didn´t fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke,” she added.
“After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him cardiac massage.”
Abe, 67, collapsed and was bleeding from the neck, a source from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party told the Jiji news agency.
An official at Nara Medical University hospital told AFP: “What we can share now is that his transfer here has been completed,” declining to comment on the former leader´s status.