Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has passed away in hospital after he was shot at in Nara. Initial reports claimed that shots were fired shortly before Abe fell ill and he was without vitals after arriving at hospital.
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot on Friday while delivering a speech ahead of a parliamentary election, with public broadcaster NHK saying a man armed with an apparently homemade gun opened fire at him from behind. The former prime minister collapsed and showed no sign of life after he was shot twice in the western city of Nara, local media reported. Mr Abe fell to the ground and was seen bleeding after he was shot at 11:30 a.m. local time by an unidentified man with a gun, local police and firefighters said. While speaking in front of Kintetsu Railway’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station ahead of Sunday’s upper house election, Mr Abe fell to the ground after the second shot rang out, according to the police. Mr Abe, 67, was rushed to the Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara City and showed no vital signs, according to the local police and emergency services.
